Maredudd ab Owain ab Edwin (died 1072) was a prince of the kingdom of

Deheubarth Deheubarth (; lit. "Right-hand Part", thus "the South") was a regional name for the realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to Gwynedd (Latin: ''Venedotia''). It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under the House o ...

in south west

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Maredudd was the son of Owain ab Edwin and was hence the male-line heir of

Hywel Dda Hywel Dda, sometimes anglicised as Howel the Good, or Hywel ap Cadell (died 949/950) was a king of Deheubarth who eventually came to rule most of Wales. He became the sole king of Seisyllwg in 920 and shortly thereafter established Deheubart ...

. The throne had been seized from the previous king of this line - Hywel ab Edwin - by

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ( 5 August 1063) was King of Wales from 1055 to 1063. He had previously been King of Gwynedd and Powys in 1039. He was the son of King Llywelyn ap Seisyll and Angharad daughter of Maredudd ab Owain, and the great-gre ...

, 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 King of Wales was a rarely used title, because Wales, much like Ireland, rarely achieved a degree of political unity like that of England or Scotland during the Middle Ages. While many different leaders in Wales claimed the title of "King of Wale ...

, but on Gruffydd's death in 1063 Maredudd reclaimed Deheubarth for his line. During Maredudd's reign the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

s sacked south-east Wales in response to Welsh support for Saxon revolts like that of

Eadric the Wild Eadric ''the Wild'' (or Eadric ''Silvaticus''), also known as Wild Edric, Eadric ''Cild'' (or ''Child'') and Edric ''the Forester'', was an Anglo-Saxon magnate of Shropshire and Herefordshire who led English resistance to the Norman Conquest, acti ...

. After a few attempts to halt this, Maredudd decided not to resist the Norman encroachment on Gwent and was rewarded with lands in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 (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 (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 {{Wales-bio-stub