GRUFFYDD ap RHYDDERCH ap IESTYN
(d.
1055
),
king
.
When
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn
(q.v.)
took possession of
Deheubarth
in
1044
, the South found a new focus of resistance in the leadership of
Gruffydd ap Rhydderch
. Independence was thus retrieved in
1045
, and for
ten years, until his fall in
1055
,
Gruffydd
gave to his adopted ‘patria’ a vigorous government in which resistance to the
Danes
was a prominent feature. The sanction for his intervention in the affairs of
Deheubarth
came in part from his father's successful usurpation of power there during the years
1023-33
.
Gruffydd
, moreover, was already a ‘
king
’ in
Glamorgan
, probably over
Gwynllwg
, where his descendants enjoyed restricted power down to
1270
.
Bibliography:
-
A History of Wales
, 361-4, table 771;
-
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1899-1900
, 122 et seq.
Author:
Professor Thomas Jones Pierce, M.A., F.S.A., (1905-1964),
Aberystwyth
