__NOTOC__ Owain ap Hywel (died ) was king 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

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 ...

and probably also controlled

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 ...

. Owain was one of the three sons of King

Hywel the Good 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 Deheubarth ...

. Upon Hywel's death in 948, Owain,

Rhodri Rhodri is a male first name of Welsh origin. It is derived from the elements ''rhod'' "wheel" and ''rhi'' "king". It may refer to the following people: *Rhodri Molwynog ap Idwal (690–754), Welsh king of Gwynedd (720—754) * Rhodri Mawr ap ...

, and

Edwin The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (die ...

divided his lands among themselves according to

Welsh law Welsh law ( cy, Cyfraith Cymru) is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd.Law Society of England and Wales (2019)England and Wales: A World Jurisdiction of Choice eport(Link accessed: 16 March 20 ...

. The sons were not able to retain Hywel's hegemony over Gwynedd, which was reclaimed for its earlier dynasty by

the sons ''The Sons'' is a collection of stories by Franz Kafka. In 1913 Kafka wrote to his publisher Kurt Wolff requesting that three of his stories be placed in a single volume: "''The Stoker'', ''The Metamorphosis'', and ''The Judgment'' belong t ...

Idwal Foel Idwal Foel (Idwal the Bald; died c. 942) or Idwal ab Anarawd (Idwal son of Anarawd) was a 10th-century King of Gwynedd in Wales. A member of the House of Aberffraw, he inherited the throne from his father, Anarawd ap Rhodri. William of Malmesbury ...

. In 950, two of the sons of Idwal Foel,

Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist, and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia, who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...

and

Ieuaf Idwal ab Idwal ( en , Idwal son of Idwal, died 988), usually known as Ieuaf ( cy, Junior) to distinguish him from his father Idwal Foel, was joint king of Gwynedd in northern Wales from 950 to 969. He possibly also ruled Kingdom of Powys, Powys fo ...

, invaded the south, penetrating as far as

Dyfed Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales. It is a mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use f ...

. The sons of Hywel retaliated by invading the north in 954, reaching as far north as the

Conwy valley , name_etymology = , image = Boats in River Conwy.jpg , image_size = 300 , image_caption = Boats in the river estuary at Conwy , map = , map_size = , map_caption = , push ...

before being defeated at

Llanrwst Llanrwst ('church or parish of Saint Grwst'; ) is a market town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy, in Conwy County Borough, Wales, and the historic county of Denbighshire. It developed round the wool trade and became known als ...

and being obliged to retreat to

Ceredigion Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...

. Rhodri died in 953 and Edwin in 954, leaving Owain in sole possession of Deheubarth alone. In 958 Owain attacked Gorwennydd. From there he went to Euas and Ergin and seized them from Morgan the Great, King of Glamorgan. In 959 Owain broke into the monastery Llan Illdud in Gorwennydd, and damaged the monastery Catwg in Nant Garvan. In 962 Owain swore to pay yearly tribute to King Edgar the Peaceful. Owain did not again try to reclaim Gwynedd; instead, he and his son Einion turned eastwards to attack the kingdom of

Morgannwg Morgannwg was a medieval Welsh kingdom formed via the merger of the kingdoms of the Kingdom of Glywysing and the Kingdom of Gwent. Formation of Morgannwg First under King Morgan the Generous (fl. ) until the end of the reign of his descendant ...

(modern Glamorgan) in 960, 970, and 977. Owain was now aging, and it appears that Einion took over the rule of the kingdom on behalf of his father. On a further raid on the east in 984, Einion was killed by the noblemen of Gwent. Following Einion's death, Owain's second son Maredudd took over his position. In 986, he successfully returned to the north and seized Gwynedd, ousting Ieuaf's son Cadwallon. Owain died in 988 and Maredudd became king of Deheubarth as well, although he later consented to share his kingdom with Einion's heirs

and Cadell. The A text of the ''

Annales Cambriae The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...

'' was apparently compiled at Owain's instigation.

Children

*Cadwgan (died in 948 or 949) *Cadwallon (died in 961Cambrian Archaeological Association. ''Archaeologia Cambrensis'':
Chronicle of the Princes
, pp. 25-29. W. Pickering, 1864. Accessed 16 January 2019. or 964) *Llywarch. In 986 he was "deprived of his eyes." * Einion * Maredudd

References

Citations

Sources

* John Edward Lloyd (1911) ''A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest'' (Longmans, Green & Co.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Owain ap Hywel Dda House of Dinefwr Monarchs of Deheubarth Monarchs of Powys 10th-century Welsh monarchs 980s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain