Maredudd ab Owain (died ) was a Welsh monarch, ruling in

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

Deheubarth Deheubarth (; , thus 'the South') was a regional name for the Welsh kingdoms, realms of south Wales, particularly as opposed to kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd (Latin: ''Venedotia''). It is now used as a shorthand for the various realms united under ...

and

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

. A member of the House of Dinefwr, his patrimony was the kingdom of Deheubarth comprising the southern realms of

Dyfed Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales, covering the modern counties Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. It is mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel. Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed w ...

and Seisyllwg. Upon the death of his father King

Owain ap Hywel Dda __NOTOC__ Owain ap Hywel (died ) was king of Deheubarth in south Wales and probably also controlled Powys. Owain was one of the three sons of King Hywel the Good. Upon Hywel's death in 948, Owain, Rhodri, and Edwin divided his lands among the ...

around 988, he also inherited the kingdoms of

and

, which he had conquered for his father. He was counted among the Kings of the Britons by the Chronicle of the Princes. Maredudd was the younger son of King Owain ap Hywel Dda of Deheubarth and the grandson of King

Hywel Dda Hywel ap Cadell, commonly known as Hywel Dda, which translates to Howel the Good in English, was a Welsh king who ruled the southern Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth and eventually came to rule most of Wales. He became the sole king of Seisyllw ...

. Owain had inherited the kingdom through the early death of his brothers and Maredudd, too, came to the throne through the death of his elder brother Einion around 984. Around 986, Maredudd captured Gwynedd from its king Cadwallon ab Ieuaf. He may have controlled all Wales apart from Gwent and Morgannwg. Maredudd is recorded as raiding

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

n settlements on the borders of Radnor and as paying a ransom of a

silver penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...

a head to rescue some of his subjects who had been taken captive in Danish raids. Viking raids were a constant problem during Maredudd's reign. In 987, Godfrey Haroldson raided

Anglesey Anglesey ( ; ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms the bulk of the Principal areas of Wales, county known as the Isle of Anglesey, which also includes Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island () and some islets and Skerry, sker ...

, supposedly killing one thousand and carrying away another two thousand as captives; Maredudd was said to have then paid a huge ransom for the freedom of the hostages. Following Maredudd's death around 999, the throne of Gwynedd was recovered for the line of Idwal Foel by Cynan ap Hywel. The throne of Deheubarth went to a man named Rhain who was accepted as Maredudd's son by its people but who – after the kingdom's conquest by Llywelyn ap Seisyll – was recorded by most Welsh histories as an Irish pretender and usurper. The kingdom was later restored to Maredudd's family, but through Hywel ab Edwin, the grandson of his brother Einion. Maredudd's daughter, Angharad, the wife of king Llywelyn ap Seisyll, was the mother of his son

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ( – 5 August 1063) was the first and only Welsh king to unite all of Wales under his rule from 1055 to 1063. He had also previously been King of Gwynedd and Powys from 1039 to 1055. Gruffudd was the son of Llywelyn ap ...

, King of Wales and would later become the mother of king Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, founder of the

House of Mathrafal The Royal House of Mathrafal, also known as the House of Powys, began as a cadet branch of the Royal House of Dinefwr, taking their name from Mathrafal Castle.

after Maredudd's death and her remarriage.The Houses of Cunedda and Rhodri Mawr
Welsh Medieval Law: The Laws of Howell the Good (1909) by Hywel ap Cadell, translated by Arthur Wade Wade-Evans. See Meredydd (Maredudd) and Owen (King Owain)Lloyd, J. E.; (1959)
BLEDDYN ap CYNFYN (died 1075)
prince. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 4 March 2024Pierce, T. J.; (1959)
LLYWELYN ap SEISYLL (died 1023)
king of Deheubarth and Gwynedd. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 4 March 2024

References

Sources

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maredudd ab Owain 990s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain 10th-century Welsh monarchs House of Dinefwr Monarchs of Deheubarth Monarchs of Gwynedd Monarchs of Powys