Rhain was an 11th-century

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Dyfed Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales. It is a mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use f ...

. It is unclear when his reign began. He claimed to be the son of

Maredudd ab Owain Maredudd ab Owain (died ) was a 10th-century king in Wales of the High Middle Ages. A member of the House of Dinefwr, his patrimony was the kingdom of Deheubarth comprising the southern realms of Dyfed, Ceredigion, and Brycheiniog. Upon the d ...

and was apparently accepted as such by the people of Dyfed and the anonymous author of the C text of the ''

Annals of Wales The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...

''. However, after his defeat at Abergwill and deposition by

Llywelyn ap Seisyll Llywelyn ap Seisyll (died 1023) was an 11th-century King of Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth. Llywelyn was the son of Seisyll, a man of whom little is known. Llewelyn first appears on record in 1018, the year he defeated and killed Aeddan ap Blegy ...

of Gwynedd in 1022, he was recorded by the other histories of the time as Rhain the Irishman ( owl, Rein Yscot; Welsh la, Reyn Scottus) and treated as a

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...

. The B text of the Welsh annals asserted he was killed in the battle with Llywelyn; the ''

Chronicle of the Princes ''Brut y Tywysogion'' ( en, Chronicle of the Princes) is one of the most important primary sources for Welsh history. It is an annalistic chronicle that serves as a continuation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. ''Bru ...

'', however, pointedly notes that his body was not discovered.Charles-Edwards, T.
Wales and the Britons, 3501064
', Vol. 1. Oxford Univ. Press, 2012. Accessed 12 Feb 2013.

References

House of Dinefwr Monarchs of Deheubarth Monarchs of Dyfed 11th-century Welsh monarchs {{wales-hist-stub