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Ancestors and Children of the Lord Rhys
                                        EDNOWAIN AP BRADWEN
                                             By Darrell Wolcott
 
          In an earlier paper[1], we presented the pedigree of the Meirionydd family found in the commote of Tal-y-bont in the 11th century.  We ended that analysis with a Bradwen ap Mael born c. 1065, and the observation that he could not be the same Bradwen who fathered either Ednowain or Gwyn ap Bradwen...both men of the late 12th century.
 
         Before attempting to fill in the missing generations which separate the two men named Bradwen, we should first show our dating for the clan of Ednowain.  We had already mentioned, in the earlier paper, one marriage which dated his brother, Gwyn ap Bradwen, to c. 1160.  Two other marriages in that family appear to confirm this dating of Gwyn.[2]
 
          Two marriages are cited for Ednowain.  The first matches him with Marged ferch Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd[3], while his second wife was Sian ferch Philip ap Uchdryd Cyfeiliog ap Uchdryd ap Edwin[4].  Marged was born c. 1165, while Sian can be dated to c. 1155:
 
              1035  Cynan ap Iago             Edwin of Tegeingl  1020
                           l                                        l
             1070  Gruffudd                           Uchdryd  1055
                           l                                        l
           1100  Owain Gwynedd              Uchdryd Cyfeiliog  1085
                           l                                        l
              1127  Cynan                               Philip  1120
                           l                                       l
             1165  Marged===Ednowain=====Sian  1155
                                         1155
 
           The only child of Ednowain for which a spouse is cited was his daughter, Annes, who married Madog (c. 1170) ap Maelog Crwm (c. 1142).[5]  We date the birth of Annes to c. 1185, a third confirmation of our c. 1155 estimate for Ednowain.  One marriage mentioned in our earlier paper also confirms that date: that of Gwenllian (c. 1240) ferch Iorwerth (c. 1215) ap Peredur (c. 1185) ap Ednowain (c. 1155) to Meurig (c. 1230) ap Madog (c. 1200) ap Cadwgan of the Nannau family (c. 1170).[6]
 
           Two ladies are thought to have been sisters of Ednowain ap Bradwen: Isabel and Arddun ferch Bradwen.   Isabel married Seisyllt of Meirionydd[7] while Arddun married a Madog descended from Ednowain Bendew II [8]. 
 
          1050  Ednowain ap Eunydd Bach     1050  Ednowain Bendew II
                        l                                                   l
           1080  Seisyllt                                1080  Madog
                       l                                                    l
           1110  Einion                                 1110  Iorwerth
                       l                                                    l
          1145  Seisyllt===Isabel 1160        1145  Madog
                                                                           =
                                                                    Arddun  1155
 
        These ladies provide yet another confirmation that their brother, Ednowain ap Bradwen, was born c. 1155.
       .
          In Appendices to this paper, we shall mention some of the problems encountered in the pedigrees of this family which have resulted in the flawed constructions presented by other researchers[9].  But our primary objective here is to identify the ancestry of the c. 1125 Bradwen, father of Ednowain, and his connection to the earlier Bradwen ap Mael.
 
         One group of pedigrees derives Ednowain ap Bradwen from Llewelyn Aurdorchog, Lord of Ial and Ystrad Alun, a notion scoffed at by Peter Bartrum as "quite impossible chronologically".[10]  Of 6 such pedigrees he cites, there are three too many generations separating Ednowain from Llewelyn Aurdorchog, but these extra names are "Unwch Unarchen ap Mael ap Eliw".[11]  Those names invoke memories of the "Maeldaf ap Unwch Unarchen" found in the c. 1300 pedigree of Bradwen ap Mael, and probably should be rejected.  But there are 2 pedigrees which cite credible constructions, one mentioned by Bartrum[12] and another not.[13]
 
            Those two pedigrees yield a chronologically stable timeline when charted:
 
                            1005  Llewelyn Aurdorchog[14]
                                             l
                            1035  Ednowain Aurdorchog[15]
                                             l
                            1065  Dafydd Ysgid Aur
                                             l
                                1095  Idnerth[16]
                                             l
                               1125  Bradwen
                                             l
                               1155  Ednowain
 
            Since the 12th century men in this chart were clearly leading men of Meirionydd, and those at the top were men of Ial in Powys, how can this be explained?  Additionally, the Meirionydd men appear to have held the same lands once owned by Bradwen ap Mael, a man paternally descended from Meirion ap Cunedda whose ancestors had held those lands for some 600 years.  We think a marriage between the two families occurred about 1125 as:
 
         1065  Dafydd Ysgid Aur                   1065  Bradwen ap Mael
                        l                                                     l
          1095  Idnerth==================daughter  1105
                                             l
                               1125  Bradwen
                                             l
                              1155  Ednowain
 
           With such a marriage, the only daughter of Bradwen ap Mael could have brought his lands to her son whom she named after her father.  This son then named one of his sons after his paternal ancestor, Ednowain ap Llewelyn Aurdorchog.  But what were the circumstances which might have led to such a marriage?
 
           Although there is little in the written record to guide us, we do know that Llewelyn Aurdorchog had been his king's penteulu; he was the leader of the warband of Gruffudd ap Llewelyn during most of that man's kingship (1039-1063).  From his name as it appears in various pedigree citations, his son Ednowain also served as penteulu for a king, donning the gold torc which symbolized the ancient Celt battle leaders.  And Ednowain's son, Dafydd "with the gold boots" also wore the garb of a battle leader....circlets of gold around his lower legs.  We would posit, therefore, that this family had a long tradition serving as professional soldiers who, in modern terms, would be called field generals.  The tradition may go back as far as the early 900's to Cynddelw Gam ap Elgudy who led an army in the battles which expelled the Danes from northeast Wales.[17]
 
         It is entirely possible that Coel ap Gweirydd, father of Llewelyn Aurdorchog, had been penteulu for King Llewelyn ap Seisyll; we have previously suggested that Coel married a sister of that king.[18]  After the death of Gruffudd ap Llewelyn in 1063, the sons of Cynfyn[19] were confirmed as new kings: Rhiwallon in Powys and Bleddyn in Gwynedd.  We suspect Bleddyn asked his nephew[20] Ednowain ap Llewelyn Aurdorchog, to join him in Gwynedd to train and lead his warband.  In 1069, it may have been Ednowain who led Bleddyn's men to avenge the slaying of Rhiwallon at Mechain.  That the men defeated, Ithel and Maredudd sons of Gruffudd ap Llewelyn, were his second-cousins[21] would have little meaning to Ednowain; he was merely a professional soldier serving his king.  Generals do not chose the enemy, his superiors holding political power do that.
 
           A generation later, we find Cadwgan ap Bleddyn in Gwynedd defending Anglesey against the Normans.[22]  Cadwgan had married a cousin of Cynan ap Iago of Anglesey[23] and was grooming a young son of Cynan for eventual kingship....the Gruffudd ap Cynan who first appears in the Brut in 1098 as an ally of Cadwgan.  Subsequent events lead us to speculate that a younger sister of that Gruffudd, born c. 1080, had been given to Dafydd ap Ednowain Aurdorchog as wife.  And that Dafydd was named penteulu for Gruffudd ap Cynan when he finally obtained the Lordship of Anglesey in 1099.  It was clearly Gruffudd's belief that all of Gwynedd was his patrimony and his quest to obtain rule over it would require a well-trained, professional military man.  Thus, when Dafydd donned his golden symbols, he was probably the 4th consecutive man of his paternal line to serve as a field general.
 
        Should our conjecture prove correct, then Idnerth ap Dafydd Ysgid Aur would be a first cousin of Owain Gwynedd, elder son of Gruffudd ap Cynan.  There is nothing in the literature to suggest that Idnerth followed his forefathers' military profession, but certainly Owain Gwynedd would have required a penteulu as he began to stand-in for his aging father in the mid-1120's.  Certainly his brother, Cadwaladr, was doing his own thing down in Ceredigion and southwest Wales[24] and was not in the service of Owain.
 
          About the year 1124, the pedigree evidence suggests a plan by Owain Gwynedd to bring all of Meirionydd firmly under his control.  He already had a first-cousin in line to become Lord of Ystumanner commote[25].  But the Lord of Tal-y-bont commote, Bradwen ap Mael, owed his position and lands to direct descent from Meirion ap Cunedda and not from any generosity provided by the kings of Gwynedd.  He was, however, approaching 60 years of age and had no heirs save a daughter born in mid-life.  Bradwen's younger brother, Peredur, also had a daughter the same age but she was not an heiress; her brother Cadwaladr was then in his late teens and probably serving his required apprenticeship at the manor of Gruffudd ap Cynan in Anglesey.  It is not known how that man was later persuaded to relocate in Powys[26] but it is possible that he was offered the lands in Ial which had passed down to Idnerth ap Dafydd Ysgid Aur, in exchange for his claim to paternal lands in Meirionydd.
 
           In any event, Owain Gwynedd took as his mistress Angharad ferch Peredur ap Mael[27] by whom he soon had a son Cynan, and Idnerth ap Dafydd likely married the sole heiress of Bradwen ap Mael by whom he had a son, Bradwen.  When the aging sons of Mael died, we suggest their Meirionydd lands would be inheirited by Bradwen ap Idnerth and Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd.[28]
 
           We know of no singular achievement by Ednowain ap Bradwen which merited his inclusion among the 15 Founders of Noble Tribes of Gwynedd.  Perhaps he had also served as penteulu for the Gwynedd kings of his era, but perhaps the compilers of that list simply wanted to include a Meirionydd man so that all parts of Gwynedd were represented among the 15.
               
NOTES:
[1]  The paper "Bradwen of Llys Bradwen, Meirionydd" should be considered an integral part of the present paper, and the two examined together. Click on the link below:
[2] Pen, 128, 660b cites the marriage of Gwenhwyfar (c. 1400) ferch Rhys (c. 1365) ap Gruffudd (c. 1330) ap Gruffudd (c. 1300) ap Alo (c. 1270) descended from Morgan Hir, with Ieuan (c. 1390) ap Einion (c. 1360) ap Gruffudd (c. 1330) ap Tudor (c. 1295) ap Ednyfed (c. 1265) ap Llewelyn (c. 1230) ap Tudor (c. 1195) ap Gwyn (c. 1160) ap Bradwen (c. 1125).  The same source cites Ynyr (c. 1425), the son of that c, 1390 Ieuan, as married to Gwenhwyfar (c. 1440) ferch Griffri (c. 1410) ap Ieuan Fychan (c. 1375) ap Adda (c. 1345) ap Gronwy (c. 1315) ap Adda (c. 1280) ap Gronwy (c. 1250) ap Adda (c. 1220) ap Dafydd Goch (c. 1190) ap Ednowain (c. 1155) ap Bradwen.
[3] Dwnn i, 39
[4] Dwnn ii, 239
[5] Harl. 1973, 38
[6] Harl. 1973, 40
[7] Harl. 1973, 70 & 77
[8] Dwnn ii, 325
[9] Notably Thomas A. Glenn in his 1902 work "Reifsnyder-Gilliam Ancestry" and Peter Bartrum in his 1974 work "Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1400"
[10] National Library of Wales Journal, Vol XIII, page 132 in notes to his article on "Pedigrees of the Welsh Tribal Patriarchs"
[11] Pen. 138, 415 & 508; Pen. 128, 731; Pen. 135, 370; Pen 118, 622; and Pen. 132, 174
[12] Wrexham 1, 44
[13] Dwnn ii, 242/43
[14] Bartrum incorrectly dates him a generation later by charting the c. 1065 Ithel Felyn of Ial as his son instead of his grandson. 
[15] Several sources call him "Owain" Aurdorchog, but the majority agree upon "Ednowain" which we favor
[16] Another group of pedigrees, Pen. 131, 288, Pen. 74, 72 and Pen. 138, 169 agree the father of this Bradwen was named Idnerth, but err in identifying him as "Idnerth ap Edryd ap Nethan", a man born c. 1040 who occurs in the ancestry of Ednyfed Fychan
[17] See the paper "The Retaking of Northeast Wales" at the link below:
[18] In our paper on "The Shropshire Walcot Family", in notes to its Chart I, we give our reasons for positing this marriage.  See it at the link below:
[19] Cynfyn, we believe, was named interim king of Powys in 1023 during the minority of future king Gruffudd ap Llewelyn.  Others have suggested his sons were favored by the English, since they allowed Harold Godwinson to freely cross their lands to beseige Gruffudd ap Llewelyn at Rhuddlan.
[20] The mother of Ednowain Aurdorchog was a sister of Bleddyn, Efa ferch Cynfyn
[21] We identify Gruffudd ap Llewelyn as a first-cousin of Llewelyn Aurdorchog; thus the sons of those two men would be second-cousins
[22] ByT, entries for 1094 and 1098
[23] His wife, deceased by 1098, had been Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd nephew of Iago
[24] ByT, entries for 1143 and 1144
[25] The mother of Einion ap Seisyllt of Ystumanner commote and the mother of Owain Gwynedd were sisters, both daughters of Owain ap Edwin of Tegeingl
[26] This Cadwaladr ap Peredur is absent from the known history of Meirionydd, and his only daughter married a man of Maelor in Powys; it seems reasonable to suggest he had relocated to that area of Wales
[27] ABT 2g
[28] For many years thereafter, Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd and his descendants claimed the Lordship of Meirionydd as their paternal right
 
APPENDIX I:
 
       The early families descended from Bradwen ap Idnerth include three branches which repeated a long string of males names.  Most charts of the family combine all these same-named men as single persons, ignoring the chronology:
 
                                      1125  Bradwen ap Idnerth
                   ______________________l_____________
                   l                                l                              l
    1155  Ednowain           1160  Peredur            1160  Gwyn
                   l                                l                              l
      1185  Peredur (a)        1195  Gwyn              1195  Tudor
                   l                                l                              l
       1220  Gwyn              1225  Tudor            1230  Llewelyn (b)
                   l                                l                              l
      1255  Tudor (c)          1260  Llewelyn          1265  Ednyfed (d)
                   l                                l                             
     1290  Llewelyn           1295  Ednyfed (e)
                   l                               l
     1320  Ednyfed             1330  Aron
                   l                               l
        1350  Aron (f)         1365  Ednyfed (g)
                   l
     1380  Ednyfed (h)  
 
      
         (a) Harleian 1973, 40 cites his grandaughter, Gwenllian ferch Iorwerth ap Peredur ap Ednowain, as married to Meurig ap Madog ap Cadwgan of the Nannau family.  That Gwenllian was born c. 1240 while her husband was born c. 1230
 
           (b) He is the Llewelyn ap Tudor ap Gwyn who was living in 1282, and presented a claim for his paternal lands to Edward I following the Conquest.
 
           (c) He was likely dead by 1301, but his brothers, Dafydd and Ieuan ap Gwyn, were among those who gave fealty to the young Prince of Wales (Edward II) when he was invested with that title
 
           (d) His brother, Iorwerth ap Llewelyn ap Tudor ap Gwyn, is the man whose scrivenor penned the family pedigree c. 1300; that Iorwerth is also listed in the 1292/93 Meirionydd Lay Subsidy Roll
 
          (e) The Ednyfed ap Llewelyn ap Tudor cited in Peniarth 128, 658 & 836 as married to Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd ap Adda ap Gruffudd descended from Genillin ap Gwaethfoed of Meirionydd.  That Gwenllian was born c. 1305
 
          (f) The Aron ap Ednyfed ap Llewelyn who, in the same citations shown immediately above, married Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd Dew ap Ieuan ap Einion descended from Aeddan ap Gwaithfoed II of Gwent.  That Gwenllian was born c. 1360
 
         (g) Peniarth 138, 613 cites an unnamed daughter, born c. 1395, of Ednyfed ap Aron ap Ednyfed who married Ieuan Llwyd ap Ieuan Boc descended from Gwyn III ap Gruffudd III of Powys.  Ieuan Llwyd was born c. 1380
 
         (h) This is the Ednyfed ap Aron who, according to local tradition, concealed Owain Glyndwr in a cave on his lands when Henry IV sought his capture.  Peniarth 128, 658 cites his marriage (as Ednyfed ap Aron ap Ednyfed) to an unnamed daughter of Jenkin Llwyd Fychan ap Jenkin Llwyd ap Ieuan Llwyd descended from Blegoryd ap Dyfnwal.  The latter was a brother of Bran, whose son Llywarch was Lord of Menai.  That daughter was born c. 1385
 
 
APPENDIX II:
 
         Without burdening this paper with the numerous citations which support our conclusions, we will chart one other group of families which repeat strings of male names following a man called Dafydd Goch; while Bartrum's charts recognize both a Dafydd Goch ap Ednowain ap Bradwen and a Dafydd Goch ap Gruffudd ap Ednowain, there were at least 4 men called Dafydd Goch in those families:
 
                                1155  Ednowain ap Bradwen
                                   _________l_______________
                                   l                                           l
                   1190  Gruffudd                      1190  Dafydd Goch
                                   l                                           l
                 1220  Dafydd Goch                    1225  Gruffudd
                                  l                                           l
                     1255  Ieuan                        1255  Dafydd Goch
                 _________l___________                         l
                 l                                   l                         l
     1290  Rhys              1285  Dafydd Goch    1290  Ieuan
                 l                                  l                          l
  1320  Maredudd             1315  Ieuan         1320  Madog
                 l                                  l
     1355  Ieuan                1345  Rhys
                 l                                  l
   1390  Gruffudd           1375  Maredudd
                                                 l
                                    1405  Ieuan
                                                 l
                                   1435  Gruffudd