Maredudd ab Owain ab Edwin (died 1072) was a prince of the kingdom of
Deheubarth in south west
Wales.
Maredudd was the son of Owain ab Edwin and was hence the male-line heir of
Hywel Dda. The throne had been seized from the previous king of this line -
Hywel ab Edwin - by
Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, who claimed the throne through his mother, Angharad. Angharad was the daughter of
Maredudd ab Owain ap Hywel, while Hywel claimed the throne through the latter Maredudd's younger brother, Einion (Hywel's grandfather).
Gruffydd had united almost all Wales under his rule, and was the only ruler to be
King of Wales, but on Gruffydd's death in 1063 Maredudd reclaimed Deheubarth for his line.
During Maredudd's reign the
Normans sacked south-east Wales in response to Welsh support for Saxon revolts like that of
Eadric the Wild. After a few attempts to halt this, Maredudd decided not to resist the Norman encroachment on
Gwent and was rewarded with lands in
England in 1070. In 1072 he was killed in a battle by the river Rhymni. He was succeeded by his brother,
Rhys ab Owain, rather than his young son, Gruffydd ap Maredudd.
When Rhys ab Owain died, the realm was seized by
Rhys ap Tewdwr
Rhys ap Tewdwr (c. 1040 – 1093) was a king of Deheubarth in Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great. He was born in the area which is now Carmarthenshire and died at the battle of Brecon in April 10 ...
(Maredudd's second cousin, descended from a younger son of Einion). Gruffydd lived on his father's lands in England for some years during this period, before being killed when trying to recapture his father's kingdom from Rhys ap Tewdwr.
References
*
John Edward Lloyd
Sir John Edward Lloyd (5 May 1861 – 20 June 1947) was a Welsh historian, He was the author of the first serious history of the country's formative years, ''A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest'' (1911).
Ano ...
(1911) ''A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest'' (Longmans, Green & Co.)
House of Dinefwr
1072 deaths
Monarchs of Deheubarth
Medieval Welsh killed in battle
11th-century Welsh monarchs
Year of birth unknown
Monarchs killed in action
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