Rhoderic Mawr, King of Wales
Boomer6784
I am a direct descendant of Rhoderic Mawr, the first King of Wales, I am
seeking any and all information on him that I can. Thank you.
Linda K. Gholson-Hoffine
Stewart Baldwin
boome...@aol.com (Boomer6784) wrote:
Rhodri Mawr, king of Gwynedd, died in 878. ["Rhoderic" is an
Anglicization of the Welsh name "Rhodri".] Although he was an
important Welsh king, it is not really appropriate to call him the
"first King of Wales", for there were large parts of Wales over which
he did not rule. Most sources give the name of Rhodri's wife as
Angharad, heiress of Ceredigion, and give his mother as Nest, heiress
of Powys, but Patrick Sims-Williams [in the article "Historical Need
and Literary Narrative: a Caveat from Ninth-Century Wales", Welsh
History Review, vol. 17 (1994), pp. 1-40] has recently argued
(conclusively, in my opinion) that neither Nest nor Angharad ever
existed, and that they were inventions of later genealogists who
wanted to give Rhodri's family a line of descent from the earlier
kings of Powys and Ceredigion. Rhodri's ancestry, as taken from the
best records (The Harleian genealogies and the Welsh and Irish
annals), is given below. Names are given here in their Old Welsh
forms, with Modern Welsh ["MW"] forms given in brackets.
The family claimed descent from Mailcun [MW Maelgwn Gwynedd], a
contemporary of the author Gildas (5th or 6th century), whose exact
chronology is uncertain. (The obituary of Maelgwn which appears in
Annales Cambriae is a late fabrication, so the Annales Cambriae cannot
be used to deduce a date for Gildas.) However, there are suspicious
features in the early part of the pedigree (see, for example, Molly
Miller, "Date Guessing and Pedigrees", in Studia Celtica 10/11
[1975/6], pp. 96-109), and the part of the pedigree which can be
considered reasonably certain begins with Iago, whose death is
recorded in the Irish annals. All dates given here should be regarded
as approximate.
Iacob [MW Iago], d. 616. (whom the official genealogies call son of
Beli, son of Run, son of Mailcun [Maelgwn Gwynedd])
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Catman [MW Cadfan], king of Gwynedd, for whom a memorial stone
survives. (In late sources, his wife's name is given as Tandreg of
Powys.)
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Catgollaun [MW Cadwallon], d. 634, king of Gwynedd. (In my opinion,
the vary late statement of Geoffrey of Monmouth that he married a
sister of King Penda of Mercia can probably be dismissed as one of
Geoffrey's numerous fabrications.)
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Catgualart [MW Cadwaladr], d. 664 or 682 [sources differ]
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Iutguaul [MW Idwal]
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Rotri [MW Rhodri], d. 754, king of Gwynedd.
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Cinnan [MW Cynan], d. 818, king of Gwynedd
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Etthil [MW Esyllt, daughter]. Some late sources incorrectly give her
as the wife of Merfyn and mother of Rhodri. See the article of
Sims-Williams mentioned above, for a full discussion of this
confusion.
md. Guriat [MW Gwraid], from the Isle of Man.
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Mermin [MW Merfyn], d. 844, king of Gwynedd.
Name of wife unknown. [As mentioned above, his alleged wife Nest of
Powys (given as wife of Gwraid in some confused accounts) probably
never existed.]
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Rotri [MW Rhodri Mawr], d. 878, king of Gwynedd
Stewart Baldwin