Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd

Dafydd ab Owain Gwynedd (1135? - 1203) was a king of Gwynedd of 1170 with 1195. It reigned jointly with his brothers, Maelgwn and Rhodri until it makes them imprison.

Dafydd was the son of Owain Gwynedd and Cristin verch Goronwy. As Owain and Cristin were first cousins, their marriage was not accepted by the Church and the latter regarded Dafydd as an illegitimate child.

In 1157, Henri II of England invades Gwynedd and Dafydd was implied in the skirmish close to Basingwerk which failed to cost the life Henri II. In 1165, Dafydd settled in the valley of Clwyd and plundered Tegeingl.

With died of Owain in 1170, its sons could not agree on the succession. Daffyd and Rhodri attacked and killed their brother Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd. In 1173, Dafydd managed to draw aside his/her Maelgwn brother by sending it in Ireland. Another of his/her brothers, Cynan, died in 1174, which shortens the list of the applicants to the throne. This same year, Dafydd made imprison Maelgwn (returned from Ireland) and Rhodri and was only found on the throne.

Always in 1174, he married Emme of Anjou, the half-sister of Henri II and illegitimate girl of Geoffroy V of Anjou. They had four children: Owain, Einion, Gwenllian and Gwenhwyfar.

In 1175, Rhodri managed to escape and it took the weapons against Dafydd. He managed to seize Gwynedd of the west of the river Conwy and accepted from Henri II the manors of Ellesmere and of Hales in England. It also accepted a castle with Rhuddlan where Giraldus Cambrensis spent one night at the time of its voyage through Wales with the Baldwin archbishop.

In 1194, Dafydd had to face its nephew Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, who reversed it with the battle of Aberconwy with the assistance of his cousins, the wire of Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd. Dafydd lost a good part of its territories and was imprisoned in 1197. Thanks to the Archbishop of Canterbury Hubert Walter, Dafydd was released and it left to settle in England where it died in May 1203. Emme died in 1214 or after when it disappeared from the Pipe Rolls (kinds of censuses of audits of financial statement used by the English Treasury).

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