Tomas ap Rhodri

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This is a Welsh name. It means Tomas son of Rhodri.
Not to be confused with another Tomas ap Rhodri who was a prince of another line of the same family.

Tomas ap Rhodri or Thomas Rothery (c. 1300 – c. 1363).

Tomas is sometimes thought to be the only known son of Rhodri, the youngest son of Prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and younger brother to both Llywelyn the Last and Dafydd ap Gruffydd. After the deaths of Llywelyn, Dafydd, and their eldest brother Owain the Red between 1282 and 1283, Rhodri became the most senior member of the Aberffraw Dynasty to retain his liberty because he had sold his rights of succession to his brother Llywelyn around 1270 before he had had any children of his own.

Tomas did not make any claim himself to the throne of Gwynedd, and it has been shown that he was most likely a distant relative of Owain Goch ap Gruffydd rather than his nephew and thus the de jure Prince of Gwynedd. This is seen most clearly when he made a claim as closest living male heir to the lands of Owain ap Gruffydd the judgement contained a reference to Owain's brother Rhodri dying whilst Edward I was still alive. Edward I died in 1307 and Tomas ap Rhodri's father, Rhodri of Tatsfield manor, is shown to have died in 1315/16 [1]

Tomas was born in England sometime around 1300 and is thought to have died in 1363. His sister, Katherine, married into the former ruling family of Powys Wenwynwyn, now Earls of Powis. Tomas inherited his fathers lands in Cheshire and Surrey (Tatfield). However he parted from his Cheshire estates in favour of lands at Bidfield in Gloucestershire and Dinas in Mechain Is Coed (Powys). This is not the only evidence of an enduring interest in re-establishing a base in Wales because appears to have made an unsuccessful claim on the Lordship of Llŷn on the basis that he was the closest male heir of Owain Goch.[2]


He married one Cecilia [3] and was the father of Owain ap Tomas - more commonly known as Owain Lawgoch - who in 1369 proclaimed himself Prince of Wales. Owain was assassinated in 1378.

References

  1. ↑ Wolcott, Darrell. "THOMAS ap RHODRI, FATHER OF OWAIN "LAWGOCH"". The Center for the Study of Ancient Wales. 
  2. ↑ The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography
  3. ↑ The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography


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