Bleddyn ap Cynfyn

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (; (died 1075), sometimes spelled Blethyn, was an 11th-century Welsh king. King Harold Godwinson and Tostig Godwinson installed Bleddyn and his brother, Rhiwallon, as the co-rulers of kingdom of Gwynedd on his father's death in 1063, during their destruction of the kingdom of their half-brother, king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. Bleddyn became king of Powys and co-ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynedd with his brother Rhiwallon from 1063 to 1075. His descendants continued to rule Powys as the House of Mathrafal.

Background Bleddyn was born to a poorly documented Powys nobleman named Cynfyn ap Gwerystan, known only from the late traditional pedigrees reporting Bleddyn's parentage.

Cynfyn, likely a supporter of King Llywelyn ap Seisyll, would after the latter's 1023 death marry the widowed queen, Angharad, daughter of King Maredudd ab Owain of Dyfed, member of the House of Dinefwr, whose realm had been lost to the Irish pretender Rhain before its conquest by Llywelyn. who were thus maternal half-brothers of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, Angharad's son by her first husband.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Bleddyn was the most powerful king in Wales. Closely allied with Harold, the brothers joined the Saxon resistance to William the Conqueror following his conquest of England. In 1067, they joined the Mercian Eadric the Wild in their struggle against William and attacked the Normans at Hereford, ravaging the lands as far as the River Lugg. In 1068, they joined earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria in their attacks as well.

When Rhys was later defeated at the 1078 Battle of Goodwick (or Pwllgwdig) by Bleddyn's successor, Trahaearn ap Caradog, and killed by Caradog ap Gruffydd of Gwent shortly afterwards, this was hailed as vengeance "for the blood of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, his first cousin". After his death, Gwynedd was seized by Trahaearn and later recovered for the House of Aberffraw by Gruffudd ap Cynan; but in Powys, Bleddyn was the founder of a dynasty which lasted until the end of the 13th century.

Legacy Extract from the Chronicle of the Princes in which Bleddyn is featured during his reign.

Bleddyn's legacy in the Chronicle of the Princes was that of a benevolent ruler:

Bleddyn was also responsible for a revision of the Welsh law which continued in force in his dynasty's domain of Powys. Gwynedd's Venedotian Code noted that he changed the legal composition of the homestead for purposes of inheritance etc., varying its size depending on the social status of the owner. The homestead of a nobleman was 12 Welsh acres, that of a serf ( , ) had 8, and that of a bondsman or slave (Medieval ) had 4. (The text, however, notes the uncommonness of this division and says it was generally understood as 4 acres regardless of status.)

Children

Bleddyn had at least five children: They became the parents of prince Owain of Tegeingl, who sided with the Normans Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester, and Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury, member of William the Conqueror's family.

Bleddyn's grandniece, queen Angharad, married the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Cynan, a great-grandson of the Norse king Sigtrygg Silkbeard, member of the Viking Ivar dynasty. They became the parents of the first prince of Wales, Owain Gwynedd, and of prince Cadwaladr, who married a daughter of the Norman baron Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, a cousin of William the Conqueror through his great-grandfather, Gilbert, Count of Brionne.

Their daughter, the warrior princess Gwenllian, became the mother of Lord Rhys, prince of Wales, the daughter-in-law of king Rhys ap Tewdwr, who made an alliance with William the Conqueror, and the sister-in-law of princess Nesta. Nesta was Bleddyn's grandniece, and became the founder, with her husband Gerald de Windsor, of the Fitzgerald dynasty of Ireland.