EUNYDD SON OF GWENLLIAN
By Darrell Wolcott
The author of the early
15th century manuscript, Achau Brenhinoedd a Thywysogion Cymru, identified this mid-eleventh century man by reference to his
mother, an heiress of lands in, or near, Dyffryn Clwyd, without any mention of his father.[1] Gwenllian was the
daughter of Rhys ap Marchen descended from Cynddelw Gam and second cousin of both Llewelyn Aurdorchog of Ial and Afandreg
ferch Gwyar who married Iago ap Idwal of Gwynedd. No doubt Gwenllian was a lady of noble stock, but why would her son
not be identified with the usual patrynomic form as "ap" his father's name?
We suspect the reason was that other
pedigrees cite two different men as the father of Eunydd. He is called "Eunydd ap Morien ap Morgeneu ap Elystan
ap Gwaithfoed" in some citations[2], but others call him "Eunydd ap Gwergynwy ap Gwrgeneu"[3]. The latter is usually
rejected out of hand by those who equate Gwergynwy ap Gwrgeneu with a son of Gwrgeneu ap Gwaeddgar, an ancestor of Tudor
Trevor who occurs c. 805. Since the mother of Eunydd was born near 1025, his father was also an eleventh century man.
When we read what our historians
say about Eunydd, we soon realize they have confused several same-named men who lived in very different eras:
"Eunydd, lord of Dyffryn Clwyd, came
into Powysland in the time of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Prince of Powys, and fought with him against the English. For his services,
the Prince gave him the townships of Trefalun and Gresford in Maelor Cymraeg and Leprog Fawr, Leprog Fychan and Trefnant y
Rhiw in Tegeingl. He married Eva, daughter and heiress of Llewelyn ap Dolfyn ap Llewelyn Aurdorchog."[4]
No doubt this "biography" originated
with a 1604 pedigree compiled by Randle Holme[5] for Sir William Meredith of Stansty. In that document[6], we find this
wording:
"Eunydd the son of Gwerngwy the son
of Gwaeddgar, and of Gwenllian daughter and heiress of Rhys ap Marchen of Ruthin land, was one of the 15 houses or tribes
of the chiefest accomplishments with Dafydd the son of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales. He came to Bromfield by
the procurement of Bleddyn the son of Cynfyn, Prince of Powys, to his aid against Englishmen, and to whom the said Prince
gave the townships of Alunton and Gresford for his good service. He married Eleanor one of the daughters and heirs of
Llewelyn the son of Dolffyn of Ial, and of Tangwystl daughter and heiress of Iorwerth Sawdnorgrin ap Grono ap Hywel ap Ithel
Felyn. They had issue Ithel who married Gwladys daughter and one of the heirs of Gruffudd ap Meilyr ap Elidyr and of
Angharad daughter and heiress of Meurig ap Caradog ap Iestyn ap Gwrgan.
"Ithel and Heilyn his brother, after the
death of their father Eunydd, entered into their father's possessions and divided the same betwix them according to the tenure
of gavelkind. Ithel had for his part the townships of Alunton and Gresford in Bromfield, Lleproe Fawr, Lleproe Fychan
and Trefnant in Englefield....and Heilyn had for his part all his mother's lands in Ial and the 7 townships of his father's
possessions in Ruthin land."
Since the various claims made
in those sources are anachronistic and cannot all refer to a single man, let's examine them one by one:
1. Bleddyn ap Cynfyn was the
prince of Powys from 1069 until his death in 1075. There is no record of him ever fighting the English, either in Bromfield
or elsewhere; he was confirmed as a local ruler in Wales by Edward the Confessor in 1063 and nothing indicates the Norman
Marcher Lords invaded Powys as early as 1075. He was killed long before Dafydd ap Owain Gwynedd was born; the active
floruit of the latter was c. 1173-1203.
2. Eunydd ap Morien did not
"come into Powysland", he was born there to a family which had resided in Tegeingl since the early tenth century.[7]
Born near 1045, this man would have served the kings of Powys as a legal duty and not simply as a friend of Bleddyn. Actually,
Bleddyn was a second-cousin of Eunydd's father.[8] The lands in Tegeingl were almost certainly those inherited from
his father, not a royal grant to him. He was not "Lord of Dyffryn Clwyd"; while the 7 recited townships he inherited
from his mother[9] might be described as "Ruthin land", they are located just south of the cantref of Dyffryn Clwyd
in Edeyrnion.
3. The lands called
Trefalun (also called Alunton or Allington) and Gresford in "Bromfield" were clearly not held by an 11th century
Eunydd. In 1086, the Cheshire portion of the Domesday Book lists both as held by a Thored, from Earl Hugh. Together
with Mortyn (also called Burton), these lands lie north of the Alun River and were probably not a part of the Welsh Maelor
Cymraeg until the following century. We believe Earl Ranulf of Chester granted that territory to a Eunydd and Sandde
Hardd in 1144,[10] and would identify this Eunydd as a grandson of the c. 1045 man bearing the same name.
4. There was never
a lady called "Efa ferch Llewelyn ap Dolfyn ap Llewelyn Aurdorchog and the latter had no son named Dolfyn.[11] Such
a mythical lady would occur no earlier than c. 1095, much too late to have married the son of Gwenllian. But a
lady whose mother Tangwystl was fourth from Ithel Felyn would occur about 1215. A pedigree cast for Hughes of y Ddysert in Tegeingl[12] introduces us to a "Llewelyn ap Dolfyn ap Iorwerth ap
Madog ap Llewelyn ap Ithel Hen of the tribe of Ial (Yale)" who would occur at the right time to be the husband of Tangwystl
and father of Efa:
1005 Llewelyn Aurdorchog[13]
__________________l____________
l
l
1035 Llewelyn Fychan
1036 Ithel Hen
l
l
1065 Ithel
Felyn[14] 1065
Llewelyn
l
l
1095 Hwfa
1095 Madog
l
l
1130
Gronwy
1125 Iorwerth
l
l
1160
Iorwerth
1155 Dolfyn
l
l
1195 Tangwystl=================Llewelyn
1185
l
1215 Efa
5. The Eunydd ap
Morien of c. 1045 did have sons called Heilyn and Ithel but neither could have inherited any Ial lands from the
c. 1215 Efa. In fact, it is unlikely Efa had any such lands. The seven townships she supposedly inherited from her
father were actually the seven townships which the c. 1025 Gwenllian ferch Rhys ap Marchen held, none of them in Ial.
Furthermore, Efa was not an heiress at all; she had a sister Sissely and a brother Ithel.[15]
6. Peter Bartrum,
the modern Welsh genealogist, has suggested at least one man named Eunydd in this family was also called Eunydd Gwerngwy from a
manor in Llanynys, located in the commote of Colion in Dyffryn Clwyd.[16] Perhaps this partially explains why some pedigrees
cite a Eunydd ap Gwerngwy ap Gwrgeneu which others then distorted to Gwerngwy ap Gwaeddgar. We suggest the correct
form was originally "Eunydd o' Gwerngwy ap Gwrgeneu", and further believe his father can be found in Peniarth Ms 128,
which cites a "daughter of Iorwerth ap Einion ap Ithel ap Gwrgeneu" as one wife of Ednyfed Goch ap Cynwrig ap Gruffudd Fychan
of Bersham. The Gwrgeneu in that citation would occur c. 1165/1170 and we think he was the father of the Eunydd who
married Efa of Ial (the instant pedigree concerning not him, but his brother Ithel).
The following charts depict
the early development of this family, the repeating name-strings often causing the medieval genealogists to assume all three
men called Eunydd must be a single person; also the confusion regarding the name of Eunydd's father can be seen as a result
of two different same-named men who lived 150 years apart:
GENERATION ONE
955
Elystan Marchen 960
l
l
985 Morgeneu
Rhys 990
l
l
1015 Morien=====Gwenllian
1025
l
1045 Eunydd
_________l_______________________
l
l
l
1080 Hunydd(a)
Heilyn(b) 1075 Ithel(c) 1075
(a) She married Maredudd ap Bleddyn
ap Cynfyn and was mother to Madog ap Maredudd[17]
(b)
He married Marged ferch Madog ap Cadwgan, the ancestor of the families at Maesmawr and Nannau[18] That Madog had served the brothers Rhiwallon and Bleddyn ap Cynfyn contemporaneously with Eunydd ap Morien
(c)
He married Gwenllian ferch Rhys ap Llewelyn Aurdorchog[19] but had no sons.
A daughter, Sioned, married Maredudd ap Uchdryd of Tegeingl[20]and a second daughter married Iorwerth
ap Cynan ap Llywarch Goch ap Llywarch Hwlbwrch of Rhos[21]
GENERATION TWO
1075 Heilyn ap Eunydd
_____________l______________
l
l
1110 Iorwerth(a)
Eunydd(b) 1105
(a) His son, Iorwerth
Saithmarchog, witnessed several land grants between 1176 and 1198 and died without known issue. We believe a daughter
of Iorwerth was his heiress and married the father of Cowryd ap Cadfan. A great-grandson of the latter was also
called Iorwerth Saithmarchog, it being one of the 7 manors inherited by Eunydd ap Morien from his mother Gwenllian.[22]
(b) It was this Eunydd to whom the
Maelor townships of Trefalun and Gresford were granted for his military service, probably to the Earl of Chester
GENERATIONS THREE & FOUR
1105 Eunydd
ap Heilyn
________l__________________
l
l
1135
Ithel(a)
Heilyn 1135
____________l__________
________l_______
l
l l
l
l
Trahaearn Rhiryd
Einion Ithel(b)
Gwrgeneu
1165
1175 1170 1165
1165
(a) This Ithel married
Gwladys ferch Iorwerth ap Madog ap Elidyr ap Rhys Sais descended from Tudor Trevor. [23] Representatives of the
families descended from each of his 3 sons were listed as owners of lands in Allington and Gresford in the 1315 Extent of
Yale and Bromfield
(b) This Ithel married Efa ferch
Owain Brogyntyn ap Madog ap Maredudd.[24] His sons were Llewelyn and Hywel and representatives descended from both sons were
listed as owners of lands in Allington and Gresford in 1315
GENERATION FIVE
1165 Gwrgeneu ap Heilyn(a)
________l_____________________
l
l
1195 Ithel(b)
1200 Eunydd o' Gwerngwy
________l_____________________
=
l
l l
l Efa vz Llewelyn ap
Trahaearn Rhiryd Sais Einion Goch
Ieuan Dolffyn of Ial
1230 1230
1225 1225
(a) This Gwrgeneu, missing
from most modern family charts, is the source of those pedigrees which call the father of Eunydd "Gwerngwy ap Gwrgeneu" and
mistake this Eunydd for Eunydd ap Morien; the "of Gwerngwy" has been corrupted to "ap Gwerngwy"
(b) The sons of this Ithel have been confused with similarly-named sons of Ithel ap Eunydd shown in the
previous chart, even though nicknames were appended to these later men. Sons or grandsons of these men are also listed
as owners of lands in Trefalun and Gresford in 1315
The final error in the pedigree
material concerns the Ithel ap Eunydd who is said to have married Gwladys ferch Gruffudd ap Meilyr. Actually, he married
Gwladys ferch Iorwerth ap Madog as we show in the above chart for Generations Three & Four:
1025 Rhys Sais
l
1060
Elidyr
l
1090 Madog
l
1120
Iorwerth
Eunydd 1105
l
l
1150
Gwladys[25]=======Ithel 1135
l
Trahaearn, Rhiryd and Einion*
*We have noted earlier
that Ithel ap Gwrgeneu of c. 1195 also had sons with these names
It is only when we follow a strict
chronological timeline that a clear picture can be seen of this, or of any early family which had a propensity to repeat strings
of names in various branches of their descendants. The medieval genealogists usually had the names right but were unaware
that one A ap B in a family was often wholly different from another A ap B; they appear to have not considered chronology
important in casting a pedigree.
