Owain ap Gruffydd (c. 1130–1197) was a prince of the southern part of

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

and a poet. He is usually known as Owain Cyfeiliog to distinguish him from other rulers named Owain, particularly his contemporary, Owain ap Gruffydd of

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, an ...

, who is known as

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great ( cy, Owain Fawr) and the first to be ...

. Owain was the son of Gruffydd ap Maredudd (and thus grandson of Maredudd ap Bleddyn) and nephew of

Madog ap Maredudd Madog ap Maredudd ( wlm, Madawg mab Maredud, ; died 1160) was the last prince of the entire Kingdom of Powys, Wales and for a time held the Fitzalan Lordship of Oswestry. Madog was the son of King Maredudd ap Bleddyn and grandson of King Bledd ...

, the last prince of the whole of Powys. Madog gave his nephew the

cantref A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law. Description Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which were ...

Cyfeiliog Cyfeiliog was a medieval commote in the cantref of Cynan of the Kingdom of Powys. Cynan also contained the commote of Mawddwy. Other sources refer to Cyfeiliog as a cantref in its own right, possibly as a result of Cynan's being renamed for the la ...

to rule in 1147. On Madog's death in 1160 Owain became the ruler of most of southern Powys (this became known as

Powys Wenwynwyn Powys Wenwynwyn or Powys Cyfeiliog was a Welsh kingdom which existed during the high Middle Ages. The realm was the southern portion of the former princely state of Powys which split following the death of Madog ap Maredudd of Powys in 1160: the ...

after it was inherited by his son). He married Gwenllian, one of the daughters of

. He is recorded as having been in alliance with the other Welsh princes to withstand the invasion of 1165 by King

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin kin ...

. Thereafter he usually followed a policy of supporting the English crown. In 1170 he gave land for the founding of the abbey of

Strata Marcella The Abbey of Strata Marcella ( cy, Abaty Ystrad Marchell) was a medieval Cistercian monastery situated at Ystrad Marchell (''Strata Marcella'' being the Latinised form of the Welsh name) on the west bank of the River Severn near Welshpool, Powys ...

. In 1188, however, he refused to meet or support Baldwin,

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

and

Giraldus Cambrensis Gerald of Wales ( la, Giraldus Cambrensis; cy, Gerallt Gymro; french: Gerald de Barri; ) was a Cambro-Norman priest and historian. As a royal clerk to the king and two archbishops, he travelled widely and wrote extensively. He studied and taugh ...

when they journeyed around Wales to raise men for a

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

, and was excommunicated as a result. In 1195 Owain handed the rule of most of his realm to his son

Gwenwynwyn Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog (died c. 1216) was the last major ruler of mid Wales before the completion of the Norman English invasion. He was one of few native rulers to represent a real threat to the rule of Llywelyn the Great. Lineage Gwenwy ...

and retired to the abbey of Strata Marcella, where he died and was buried two years later. His illegitimate son, Cadwallon, was given the

commote A commote ( Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wale ...

s of Llannerch Hudol and Broniarth. Owain has also long been considered a notable poet. Although only one poem ascribed to him has been preserved—
Hirlas Owain
'—it is commonly rated as one of the finest Welsh poems of this period. In the poem, Owain's bodyguard are gathered at his court following a raid in 1155 to free his brother Meurig from prison in

Maelor The Maelor is an area of north-east Wales along the border with England. It is now entirely part of Wrexham County Borough. The name ''Maelor'' is an old Welsh word: it can be translated as "land of the prince", from ''mael'' ("prince") and ''l ...

. The mission accomplished, Owain calls for the drinking horn to be passed to each member of his bodyguard in turn, with words of praise for each one. There is a more sombre note when he remembers two of his men who fell in the fighting and grieves for their loss. The poem's most recent editor,

Gruffydd Aled Williams Gruffydd Aled Williams FLSW (born 1943) is a scholar who specialises in Welsh medieval poetry and Renaissance literature. He was brought up in Dinmael, Denbighshire, and Glyndyfrdwy in the former county of Merioneth (now in Denbighshire). Educat ...

, has suggested that the poem was actually written by

Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr Cynddelw Brydydd Mawr ("Cynddelw the Great Poet"; wlm, Kyndelw Brydyt or ; 1155–1200), was the court poet of Madog ap Maredudd, Owain Gwynedd (Owen the Great), and Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd, and one of the most prominent Welsh poets of the 12 ...

, the preeminent Welsh court poet of the century, perhaps in collaboration with Owain. Owain also appears in the romance of ''Fouke le Fitz Waryn'' as a knight who strikes Fulk with a spear.

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.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Owain Cyfeiliog 1130 births 1197 deaths Monarchs of Powys People excommunicated by the Catholic Church Welsh princes 1130s births 12th-century Welsh monarchs 12th-century Welsh poets Year of birth uncertain