Owain Cyfeiliog

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Owain ap Gruffydd (c. 1130 - 1197) was a prince of the southern part of Powys and a poet. He is usually known as Owain Cyfeiliog to distinguish him from another contemporary ruler, Owain ap Gruffydd of Gwynedd known as Owain Gwynedd.

Owain was the son of Gruffydd ap Maredudd and nephew of Madog ap Maredudd, the last prince of the whole of Powys. Madog gave his nephew the commote of Cyfeiliog to rule in 1147. On Madog's death in 1160 Owain became the ruler of most of southern Powys.

He is recorded as having been in alliance with the other Welsh princes to withstand the invasion of 1165 by king Henry II of England. Thereafter he usually followed a policy of supporting the English crown. In 1170 he gave land for the founding of the abbey of Strata Marcella. In 1188 however he refused to meet or support Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury and Giraldus Cambrensis when they journeyed around Wales to raise men for a crusade, and was excommunicated as a result.

In 1195 Owain handed the rule of his realm to his son Gwenwynwyn ab Owain and retired to the abbey of Strata Marcella, where he died and was buried two years later.

Owain was also a notable poet. Although only one of his poems has been preserved, this one, Hirlas Owain is commonly rated as one of the finest Welsh poems of this period. In the poem, Owain's bodyguard are gathered at his court following a raid in 1155 to free his brother Meurig from prison in Maelor. The mission accomplished, Owain calls for the drinking horn to be passed to each member of his bodyguard in turn, with words of praise for each one. There is a more sombre note when he remembers two of his men who fell in the fighting and grieves for their loss.

Owain also appears in the romance of Fulke FitzWarin as a knight who strikes Fulk with a spear.

Preceded by First Creation

Prince of Southern Powys 1160–1195

Succeeded by Gwenwynwyn ab Owain

[edit] References

John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)