Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
Kevin Patrick Mostyn Family - Person Sheet
NameHywell Dda AP CADELL King Of Wales, 29G Grandfather
FatherCadell AP RHODRI MAWR King Of Deheubarth (-909)
Web Notes notes for Hywell Dda AP CADELL King Of Wales
Began to reign about 907.
Elen was his first wife.
From book Mostyn of Mostyn, page 5:
In the genealogies, or most of them, Tudur is said to have married Angharad, one of the daughters of Hywel Dda, in 907, and to have died in 948. The first date is wrong. Nor is it probable that Hywel could have had a daughter of marriageable age in 907. A little study makes it clear that the first date in the original compilation belongs not to Tudur Trefor, but to Hywel Dda himself, who began to reign in 907, and died about 950. Tudur was probably born close to 900, and may have died as stated in 948, but this date doubtless belongs to Hywel, by an error of two years in giving the end of his reign. Mr Henry F. J. Vaughan, who devoted most of his life to the study of the older genealogies (1) accepts the statement that Tudur married Angharad daughter of Hywel, and it is moreover
(1) See Welsh Pedigress, by Henry F. J. Vaughan, B.A., S.C.L., Oxon, Y cymmrodor, X, pp. 72-156.
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page 6:
His name appears as a witness to charters: Worthy, Hants, 21 Jun 931; at Luton, 12 Nov 931; Middleton, 30 Aug 932; Winchester, 28 May 934, and Nottingham, 7 Jun 934. (Codex Dipl.)
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 59:
In the early years of Wales, there were as many as 18 separate princedoms within the 8,000 square miles of Wales, largely because the Welsh law of portion, gavelkind, divided inheritances equally among all a man's sons, and so fragmented kingdoms as well as farms. They often fought against each other, besides being engaged in interminable warfare with their enemies. Between 949 and 1045, according to the 13th centure Brut y Tywysogyn, the Chronicle of Princes, 35 of their rulers died by violence and 4 more were forcibly blinded.
page 60:
Gradually the multitudinous little princedoms were consolidated into greater whotes, and four major Welsh kingdoms emerged: Gwynedd in the north, Powys in the east, Deheubarth and Morgannwg in the south. They generally came into being peacefully, by policy and marriage, and though they were often at odds with each other, they seldom went to war. Several great rulers, Rhodri Mawr of Powys, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, each briefly succeeded in uniting almost all Wales under one aegis.
Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (176:1). Bartrum's "Welsh Genealogies". Hywel inherited Seisyllwg from his father, CADELL and became ruler of Dyfed when Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, his wife's brother died in 904. It is possible that Hywel had Llywarch killed. To these lands, apparently sometime around 930, he added Brycheiniog. This enlarged kingdom became known as Dehubarth. In 942 Hywel gained control of Gwynedd and Powys when his cousin IDWAL ab ANARAWD ap RHODRI was killed in a revolt against Wessex. This made him ruler of all Wales with the exception of Glamorgan in the souteast corner. Hywel, although sovereign, was in some way subject to the overlordship of the Kingdom of Wessex. Hywel's crowning achievement was his codification of the laws of Wales. It is for this that he probably was given the description "the
Good" by his descendants. When Hywel died in 950, He passed the newly created kingdom of Dehubarth on to his son, OWAIN. Gwynedd and Powys were returned to the descendants of his cousin, IDWAL.
Hywel Dda (the Good) ap Cadell, Prince of Deheubarth, acquired the Kingdom of Dyfed on marrying Elen, the daughter of the King of Dyfed. He may have ordered the killing of his brother-in-law, Llywarch of Dyfed in order to secure the kingship of Dyfed for himself (John Davies: A History of Wales, London, 1993, pg. 87). He
is remembered as "Hywel the Good" and was responsible for sponsoring a compilation of Welsh Law, making St.Davids in Dyfed the ecclesiastical centre of Wales, and for issuing the first Royal coinage of Wales. However, there is no evidence that coinage was used in any scale in Wales before the time of Hywel's grandson Maredudd ap Owain.
Disorder reigned after Hywel's death, with Viking raids and English incursions spreading havoc, which the rivalries of competing petty kings and princes did nothing to mitigate. No fewer than 35 violent deaths of rulers are recorded in the Brut y Tywsogion (Chronicle of the Princes) between 950 and the Norman Conquest.
By 950 A.D., Dinefwr was the principal court from which Hywel Dda, "The Good," ruled a large part of Wales including the southwest area known as Deheubarth. His great achievement was to create the country's first uniform legal system. Hywel shared with his brothers lands in Ceredigon and Ystrad Tywi after the death of their father, Cadell, about 909. He united their inheritance in 920, and acquired Gwynedd after the death of Idwal Foel in 942.
He married Elen, daughter of Llywarch of Dyfed, and on Llywarch's death in 904 he took over the southern kingdom. In the perspective of the Dark Ages he was a powerful prince, and it may be that later generations borrowed his personal authority to buttress their own power.
Like his grandfather, Rhodri the Great, Hywel was given an epithet by a later generation. He became known as Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), although it would be wrong to consider that goodness to be innocent and unblemished. In the age of Hywel, the essential attribute of a state builder was ruthlessness, an attribute which Hywel possessed, if it is true that it was he who ordered the killing of Llywarch of Dyfed, as some have claimed.
Although contemporary evidence is lacking, there is no reason to reject the tradition that Hywel was responsible for some of the consolidation of the Laws of Wales. Among Hywel's contemporaries there were rulers who won fame as law-givers. The law was Hywel's law, cyfraith Hywel; his name gave to the law an authority comparable with that given to the laws of Mercia by King Offa or the laws of Wessex (and a larger area of England) by King Alfred. He almost certainly knew of them; he was a regular visitor to the English court and in 928, when in the flower of his manhood, he went on pilgrimage to Rome. In later centuries it was claimed that he took copies of his laws to Rome, where they were blessed by the Pope. Tradition also provided details of the circumstances under which the laws were compiled and promulgated.
It was probably the need to give cohesion to his different territories that prompted Hywel to codify the law. He was also successful in defending his territories, for there is no record that they were ravaged by the Vikings during his reign. Neither were they attacked by the English. Hywel adhered to the close relationship with England initiated by his father-in-law, Llywarch of Dyfed, yet it is unlikely that he relished the diminution in status and the heavy demands for tribute which resulted from his association with the kingdom of England. He recognized the facts of power - the power which in his lifetime extinguished the Brythonic kingdom of Cornwall and which brought about the death of his cousin, Idwal of Gwynedd.
Hywel's creation of the kingdom of Deheubarth, survived his death. In 950 it passed to his son Owain. Gwynedd and Powys returned to the line of Idwal ap Anarawd while Glamorgan continued to be subject to its own kings. Although the union between Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth was broken, Wales had only three kingdoms after 950, compared with over twice that number two centuries earlier.
Elen was his first wife.
From book Mostyn of Mostyn, page 5:
In the genealogies, or most of them, Tudur is said to have married Angharad, one of the daughters of Hywel Dda, in 907, and to have died in 948. The first date is wrong. Nor is it probable that Hywel could have had a daughter of marriageable age in 907. A little study makes it clear that the first date in the original compilation belongs not to Tudur Trefor, but to Hywel Dda himself, who began to reign in 907, and died about 950. Tudur was probably born close to 900, and may have died as stated in 948, but this date doubtless belongs to Hywel, by an error of two years in giving the end of his reign. Mr Henry F. J. Vaughan, who devoted most of his life to the study of the older genealogies (1) accepts the statement that Tudur married Angharad daughter of Hywel, and it is moreover
(1) See Welsh Pedigress, by Henry F. J. Vaughan, B.A., S.C.L., Oxon, Y cymmrodor, X, pp. 72-156.
_____
page 6:
His name appears as a witness to charters: Worthy, Hants, 21 Jun 931; at Luton, 12 Nov 931; Middleton, 30 Aug 932; Winchester, 28 May 934, and Nottingham, 7 Jun 934. (Codex Dipl.)
From "The Matter of Wales: Epic Views of a Small Country" by Jan Morris, ISBN 0-19-504221-2, page 59:
In the early years of Wales, there were as many as 18 separate princedoms within the 8,000 square miles of Wales, largely because the Welsh law of portion, gavelkind, divided inheritances equally among all a man's sons, and so fragmented kingdoms as well as farms. They often fought against each other, besides being engaged in interminable warfare with their enemies. Between 949 and 1045, according to the 13th centure Brut y Tywysogyn, the Chronicle of Princes, 35 of their rulers died by violence and 4 more were forcibly blinded.
page 60:
Gradually the multitudinous little princedoms were consolidated into greater whotes, and four major Welsh kingdoms emerged: Gwynedd in the north, Powys in the east, Deheubarth and Morgannwg in the south. They generally came into being peacefully, by policy and marriage, and though they were often at odds with each other, they seldom went to war. Several great rulers, Rhodri Mawr of Powys, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and the two Llywelyns of Gwynedd, each briefly succeeded in uniting almost all Wales under one aegis.
Weis' "Ancestral Roots. . ." (176:1). Bartrum's "Welsh Genealogies". Hywel inherited Seisyllwg from his father, CADELL and became ruler of Dyfed when Llywarch ap Hyfaidd, his wife's brother died in 904. It is possible that Hywel had Llywarch killed. To these lands, apparently sometime around 930, he added Brycheiniog. This enlarged kingdom became known as Dehubarth. In 942 Hywel gained control of Gwynedd and Powys when his cousin IDWAL ab ANARAWD ap RHODRI was killed in a revolt against Wessex. This made him ruler of all Wales with the exception of Glamorgan in the souteast corner. Hywel, although sovereign, was in some way subject to the overlordship of the Kingdom of Wessex. Hywel's crowning achievement was his codification of the laws of Wales. It is for this that he probably was given the description "the
Good" by his descendants. When Hywel died in 950, He passed the newly created kingdom of Dehubarth on to his son, OWAIN. Gwynedd and Powys were returned to the descendants of his cousin, IDWAL.
Hywel Dda (the Good) ap Cadell, Prince of Deheubarth, acquired the Kingdom of Dyfed on marrying Elen, the daughter of the King of Dyfed. He may have ordered the killing of his brother-in-law, Llywarch of Dyfed in order to secure the kingship of Dyfed for himself (John Davies: A History of Wales, London, 1993, pg. 87). He
is remembered as "Hywel the Good" and was responsible for sponsoring a compilation of Welsh Law, making St.Davids in Dyfed the ecclesiastical centre of Wales, and for issuing the first Royal coinage of Wales. However, there is no evidence that coinage was used in any scale in Wales before the time of Hywel's grandson Maredudd ap Owain.
Disorder reigned after Hywel's death, with Viking raids and English incursions spreading havoc, which the rivalries of competing petty kings and princes did nothing to mitigate. No fewer than 35 violent deaths of rulers are recorded in the Brut y Tywsogion (Chronicle of the Princes) between 950 and the Norman Conquest.
By 950 A.D., Dinefwr was the principal court from which Hywel Dda, "The Good," ruled a large part of Wales including the southwest area known as Deheubarth. His great achievement was to create the country's first uniform legal system. Hywel shared with his brothers lands in Ceredigon and Ystrad Tywi after the death of their father, Cadell, about 909. He united their inheritance in 920, and acquired Gwynedd after the death of Idwal Foel in 942.
He married Elen, daughter of Llywarch of Dyfed, and on Llywarch's death in 904 he took over the southern kingdom. In the perspective of the Dark Ages he was a powerful prince, and it may be that later generations borrowed his personal authority to buttress their own power.
Like his grandfather, Rhodri the Great, Hywel was given an epithet by a later generation. He became known as Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), although it would be wrong to consider that goodness to be innocent and unblemished. In the age of Hywel, the essential attribute of a state builder was ruthlessness, an attribute which Hywel possessed, if it is true that it was he who ordered the killing of Llywarch of Dyfed, as some have claimed.
Although contemporary evidence is lacking, there is no reason to reject the tradition that Hywel was responsible for some of the consolidation of the Laws of Wales. Among Hywel's contemporaries there were rulers who won fame as law-givers. The law was Hywel's law, cyfraith Hywel; his name gave to the law an authority comparable with that given to the laws of Mercia by King Offa or the laws of Wessex (and a larger area of England) by King Alfred. He almost certainly knew of them; he was a regular visitor to the English court and in 928, when in the flower of his manhood, he went on pilgrimage to Rome. In later centuries it was claimed that he took copies of his laws to Rome, where they were blessed by the Pope. Tradition also provided details of the circumstances under which the laws were compiled and promulgated.
It was probably the need to give cohesion to his different territories that prompted Hywel to codify the law. He was also successful in defending his territories, for there is no record that they were ravaged by the Vikings during his reign. Neither were they attacked by the English. Hywel adhered to the close relationship with England initiated by his father-in-law, Llywarch of Dyfed, yet it is unlikely that he relished the diminution in status and the heavy demands for tribute which resulted from his association with the kingdom of England. He recognized the facts of power - the power which in his lifetime extinguished the Brythonic kingdom of Cornwall and which brought about the death of his cousin, Idwal of Gwynedd.
Hywel's creation of the kingdom of Deheubarth, survived his death. In 950 it passed to his son Owain. Gwynedd and Powys returned to the line of Idwal ap Anarawd while Glamorgan continued to be subject to its own kings. Although the union between Gwynedd, Powys and Deheubarth was broken, Wales had only three kingdoms after 950, compared with over twice that number two centuries earlier.