Gruffudd Fychan II was Lord of Glyndyfrdwy and Lord of Cynllaith Owain c.1330–1369. As such, he had a claim to be hereditary Prince of Powys Fadog,[1][2] and was a member of the Royal House of Mathrafal. His son, Owain Glyndwr, started the Welsh Revolt and became Prince of Wales.

Ancestry

The epithet 'Fychan' implies that his father was also called Gruffudd. However certain genealogical tables convey conflicting data. It has been thought that he was the son of Madog Crypl who died in 1304. However, for him to inherit the succession and hold it until 1369 seems unlikely. Other tables suggest his father was Gruffudd ap Madog Fychan, a son of Madog Fychan.[citation needed]

Most probably, he was the grandson of Madog Crypl, whose son Gruffudd was aged about six at his father's death, but already married. Gruffudd was still alive in 1343.[3]

Marriage

Gruffudd Fychan II was married to Elen (Eleanor), great-granddaughter of Eleanor Plantagenet, the daughter of King Edward Longshanks and Queen Eleanor of Castile, members of the Royal House of Plantagenet and Ivrea.[4][5] Through her great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Eleanor of Provence, she was a descendant of Frozza Orseolo, member of the Venetian House of Orseolo, and number of Doges of Venice, including Orso Ipato, the first Doge historically known.

Elen's father, Thomas ap Llywelyn, Representative of the last sovereign Princes of South Wales, was Lord of South Wales, which included half of the commote of Is Coed and a quarter of Gwynionydd, both in Ceredigion.[6][7][8] Elen's sister, Marged ferch Tomos, became the wife of Tudur ap Goronwy, of the Tudors of Penmynydd, and the grandmother of Sir Owen Tudor, who gave his name to the House of Tudor.

Her father's cousins included Eleanor (died 1332), who married to Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine, son of Elisabeth of Habsburg, and Beatrice, who married to Imperial vicar Guido Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua, member of the Princely House of Gonzaga. Their son and grandson married with the House of Este and the House of Visconti, through the powerful Lord of Milan, Bernabò Visconti.

Her grandmother, Eleanor of Bar, being a granddaughter of Count Theobald II, was a niece of Isabelle of Lorraine and Matthias of Lorraine.[9] Isabelle was a daughter of Duke Theobald II, and Matthias was a son of Duke Frederick III, both members of the Imperial House of Lorraine, which later merged with the House of Habsburg and became the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.[10][11]

Through Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, and Princess Agnes of France, Eleanor's in-laws included the Royal families of Edward, Count of Savoy, of the House of Savoy, King Louis X of the House of Capet, and King Philip VI of the House of Valois, among others.[12]

Children

Gruffudd Fychan II and Elen (Eleanor) had issue:

The children of Gruffudd Fychan II and Elen were all first cousins of Sir Owen Tudor, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond, Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, and the first Tudor monarch, King Henry VII of England.[16]

Death

He was buried at the Church of St. Asaph & St Cyndeyrn in Llanasa where the remains of his tomb can be seen today.

References

  1. ^ Gower, Jon (2014). The Story of Wales, BBC books, Huw Edwards, Ebury Publishing, Open University, Wales, p. 134
  2. ^ Henderson, Zoe (2016). Caerfallen, Ruthin, Old Welsh Houses Group, North West Wales Dendrochronology Project, Gill. Jones & Ann Morgan, Wales, p. 10
  3. ^ J. E. Lloyd, Owen Glendower: Owen Glyn Dŵr (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1931), 9-15.
  4. ^ "The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Pedigrees of Royal Descents in Illustration" (PDF). Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms. 1876. p. 51.
  5. ^ Burke, John Bernard (1844). "Heraldic illustrations, by J. And J. B. Burke". p. 23.
  6. ^ Lloyd, 16-17
  7. ^ "The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Pedigrees of Royal Descents in Illustration" (PDF). Sir Bernard Burke, C.B., LL.D., Ulster King of Arms. 1876. p. 51.
  8. ^ Burke, John Bernard (1844). "Heraldic illustrations, by J. And J. B. Burke". p. 23.
  9. ^ Vale, Malcolm (2001). The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe, 1270–1380. Oxford University Press.
  10. ^ (FR)Jean-Luc Fray, Villes et bourgs de Lorraine: réseaux urbains et centralité au Moyen Âge, (Presses Universitaires Blaise-Pascal, 2007), 270.
  11. ^ Bubenicek, Michelle (2002). Quand les femmes gouvernent: droit et politique au XIVe siècle (in French). Ecole de Chartes.
  12. ^ Bubenicek, Michelle (2002). Quand les femmes gouvernent: droit et politique au XIVe siècle:Yolande de Flandre, Droit et politique au XIV siecle. Ecole des Chartes. page 54-55
  13. ^ Rodney Horace Yale (1908). "Yale genealogy and history of Wales. The British kings and princes. Life of Owen Glyndwr. Biographies of Governor Elihu Yale". Milburn and Scott company. p. 7.
  14. ^ Burke, Bernard (1852). "A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland for 1852".
  15. ^ Burke, Bernard (1886). "A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland". pp. 2060–2061.
  16. ^ What is a Second Cousin, "see House of Tudor#Patrilineal_descent, First cousin once removed to First cousin thrice removed
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