THE FLORUIT OF EINION AP SEISYLLT
By Darrell Wolcott
This man is the patriarch of
the families seated at Mathafarn in Cyfeiliog and both his descent and the years of his floruit are often misstated by genealogists
and historians. He was not a brother of Llewelyn ap Seisyllt as Dwnn cites[1] and was not contemporary with Llewelyn
Fawr as some claim. In fact, he probably died about the time the latter was born; if their lives overlapped at
all, it was when Einion was quite old and Llewelyn Fawr was a child. We estimate his birth c. 1110.
His father was Seisyllt ap Ednowain,
descended from Gwyddno Garanhir. Notwithstanding the traditional tales that Gwyddno's lands were submerged in the sixth
century[2], the man of that name in the pedigrees was born in the mid-800's. The Dwnn pedigrees[3] name the
wife of Seisyllt as a daughter of Gronwy of Tegeingl (and so brother of Edwin) but such a lady would occur
two generations too early. We believe his wife was actually Annes ferch Owain ap Edwin ap Gronwy born c. 1090,
two generations having been dropped from the medieval pedigrees[4].
The same pedigrees name the
wife of Einion as Nest ferch Madog ap Cadwgan ap Bleddyn. That lady would occur near 1125. Gronwy, the son
of Einion, is said to have married a daughter of Owain Cyfeiliog[5] which dates him to the mid-1100's. We assign 1145
as our estimate. A daughter of Einion married Owain Brogyntyn ap Madog ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn; that Owain was born
c. 1140 and confirms children of Einion ap Seisyllt occurring about 1145/1150. The early chart looks like this:
1050 Owain ap Edwin Endowain
1050 Cadwgan 1055
l l
l
1090 Annes=======Seisyllt
1080 Madog 1090
l
l
1115 Einion===============Nest 1125
______________l_____________
l
l
1145
Gronwy
Annes 1150
=
=
1160 Meddefys ferch Owain
Brogyntyn 1140
Owain Cyfeiliog
Owain Cyfeiliog was prince of
southern Powys, the son of Gruffudd ap Maredudd ap Bleddyn. His obit is recorded in 1197 and a birthdate near 1125/30
is indicated. One should expect the father of the man who married his daughter to be some 10/15 years older than him.[6]
The historians point to
a 1428 inquest[7] as their reason for dating Einion to the latter years of the 12th century and flourishing in the first half
of the 13th. Taken at Bala in Meirionydd before Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, this inquisition found the following "facts"
concerning the land which lies between the Tyfi and Duwlas rivers:
1. Einion ap Seisyllt
had held that land in capite from Llewelyn Fawr ap Maredudd ap Cynan and his brother, Llewelyn Fychan, who were Lords
of Meirionydd.
2. Because of dissention
and discord between those brothers and Einion, the latter fled to Owain Cyfeiliog Lord of Powys and placed both himself and
his lands under that man as a means to show his homage and fidelity to his new lord, and to enable him to retain those lands
against adverse claims by the Lords of Meirionydd.
Thus land which was
once a part of Meirionydd was removed from that cantref in Gwynedd and added to the neighboring cantref of Cyfeiliog
in Powys, this occurring in the lifetime of Einion ap Seisyllt. If this transfer can be dated to c. 1171 as we believe, the
king of southern Powys was a man quite likely to offer shelter to Einion; he was the father-in-law of Einion's son.
The problem with
that "finding" is not with the result stated, but with how Einion first obtained the land. If we identify the brothers Llewelyn
and Llewelyn Fychan as sons of Maredudd ap Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd (which Maredudd had been Lord of Meirionydd until ousted
in 1202), those men were not born earlier than about 1195 and their rights to Meirionydd were not restored to Maredudd's
family until 1241. We would have to believe that sometime after 1241, the brothers granted the disputed land to
Einion who subsequently carried it to a Prince of Powys who died in 1197. We shall refrain from offering the possibility
it was not Owain Cyfeiliog to whom Einion fled since the pedigree evidence clearly makes them contemporaries.
Although absent from any sources
we have seen, it is possible the two brothers were sons of a much earlier Maredudd ap Cynan[8] and born around 1085/90.
But nothing connects that Maredudd with Meirionydd and, given the tiny land holdings attributed to him...all in Powys...it
is inconceivable his family could have been the granter of the land in question. We suspect the 1428 "finding" wrongly
assumed the grant to Einion had been made at a time when the sons of Maredudd ap Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd flourished and were
Lords of Meirionydd.
Given that Einion
was in fact contemporary with Owain Cyfeiliog, we suggest the land was granted to him nearer 1150 by Owain Gwynedd, both king
of Gwynedd and Lord of Meirionydd. No doubt Einion served that king as they were first-cousins, their mothers having
been sisters. We would further conjecture that upon the death of Owain Gwynedd in 1170, the "dissention and discord"
was between Einion and the sons of Owain. Cynan ap Owain Gwynedd received Meirionydd as a part of his share of his father's
lands and one could see him and Einion falling out over who should control Einion's land. Perhaps Einion refused
to recognize Cynan as having any right to rents or renders from his land since it was a royal grant normally exempt from such
burdens. Or it may have been a more personal grievance since Einion felt he needed a powerful friend to protect him.
Whatever his motive, Einion ap Seisyllt lived in the era of Cynan ap Owain
Gwynedd, and was almost certainly dead before the grandsons of Cynan were born.
We suspect the main reason why the
medieval genealogists date Einion two generations too late can be found in the pedigrees of families descended from Gronwy.
Many of those cite Gronwy ap Einion ap Seisyllt incorrectly, mistaking Growny ap Tudor ap Growny ap Einion for his grandfather.
Both men named Gronwy had sons named Gwyn and both Gywns named a son Gruffudd.
