Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gruffydd ab Rhydderch
GRUFFYDD ab RHYDDERCH (d. 1055), king of the South Welsh, was the son of Rhydderch, son of lestin, who in 1023 had assumed the government of the south after the death of Llewelyn ab Seisyll, and was killed by the Irish in 1033. The sons of Edwin, Hywel and Maredudd, then acquired the rule of South Wales, but Gruffydd and his brothers contested it with them, fighting in 1034 the battle of Hiraethwy. Caradog [q. v.], one of Gruffydd's brothers, was slain in 1035 in some contest with the English. In 1044 the death of Howel made Gruffydd and the other sons of Rhydderch the leaders of the South Welsh opposition to Gruffydd ab Llewelyn. In 1045 the Welsh chronicler complains of the deceit which the South Welsh Gruffydd and his brother Rhys perpetrated against Gruffydd ab Llewelyn. A great struggle now broke out between them, in the course of which nearly all Deheubarth was laid waste. Gruffydd ab Rhydderch was also much engaged in attacks on the English. In 1046 Earl Swegen seems to have joined the North Welsh Gruffydd in his attacks on him. In 1049 Gruffydd joined with thirty-six Irish pirate ships in an attack on the coasts of the lower Severn, and inflicted great loss on the English, at the head of whom was Bishop Ealdred (Flor. Wig. sub an. 1049; Anglo-Saxon Chron. sub an. 1050; cf. Freeman, Norm. Conq. ii. 110, and 571-3, note i.) In 1053 his brother Rhys became so troublesome that the witan decreed that he should be slain, 'and his head was brought to Gloucester on Twelfth-day eve.' At last in 1055 Gruffydd ab Rhydderch was slain by Gruffydd ab Llewelyn. He must have possessed unusual vigour of character to struggle so long both against the English and the North Welsh king. He left a son named Caradog, who in 1065 attacked the hunting-seat which Earl Harold was building at Portskewet in Gwent, slew the workmen, and ravaged the neighbourhood. He afterwards obtained for a short time some share in the
sovereignty of Deheubarth. [Annales Cambriæ (Rolls Ser.); Brut y Tywysogion (Rolls Ser.); Brut y Tywysogion (Cambrian Archæological Association); Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Florence of Worcester; Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. ii.]