Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd

Description by Gerald of Wales Rhodri and his family are mentioned in Descriptio Cambriae by Gerald of Wales which was written in c.1188 and recounts his journey around Wales raising support for the Third Crusade. In this work Gerald appears to suggest that Rhodri had made his royal home on the island – probably at Aberffraw – and gives some illuminating details about Rhodri and his young family:

"Many chosen youths of the family of Roderic (Rhodri) were seated on an opposite rock, and not one of them could be prevailed upon to take the cross, although the archbishop and others most earnestly exhorted them, but in vain, by an address particularly directed to them. It came to pass within three days, as if by divine vengeance, that these young men, with many others, pursued some robbers of that country. Being discomfited and put to flight, some were slain, others mortally wounded, and the survivors voluntarily assumed that cross they had before despised. Roderic, also, who a short time before had incestuously married the daughter of Rhys, related to him by blood in the third degree, in order, by the assistance of that prince, to be better able to defend himself against the sons of his brothers, whom he had disinherited, not paying attention to the wholesome admonitions of the archbishop on this subject, was a little while afterwards dispossessed of all his lands by their means; thus deservedly meeting with disappointment from the very source from which he expected support."The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis; The Itinerary of Wales and the Description of WalesTranslated by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare (1894), p.445

End of reign and death By the time Gerald of Wales was passing through North Wales c.1188 the young nephew of Rhodri and Dafydd, Llywelyn the Great had begun to put pressure on his uncles. Rhodri also came under pressure from his nephews Gruffydd and Maredydd ap Cynan, who drove him from Anglesey in 1190. Rhodri made an alliance with Ragnald, King of Mann and the Isles, and possibly married Ragnald's daughter. In 1193, with the help of a Manx contingent, he briefly regained Anglesey, but was ejected again the same year by Gruffydd and Maredudd. The summer of 1193 was called the "Gaelic Summer" because of the influx of Gaelic-speaking allies from the Isle of Mann to Gwynedd. Llywelyn the Great, while it is not known exactly how, had gotten very powerful by this point and with the help of Gruffydd and Maredydd ap Cynan, he deafeted Rhys in a fiercely contested battle in the Battle of Aberconwy at the mouth of the Conway. After this victory, Llywelyn the Great and his allies "won fresh triumphs" at the passage of Menai at Porthaethwy and at Coedeneu, in the heart of Anglesey. It is unclear who they fought and if Rhodri was involved in this. Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd would die in 1195 and he is said to have been buried in Holyhead.

Family Rhodri had three known sons;

Tomas, Lord of Rhiw Llwyd Gruffudd Einion

The descendants of Prince Tomas were claimed by Sir John Wynn as his ancestors (a claim he would later have proven in court) and by the Anwyl of Tywyn Family.