of the legend of the conquest of Glamorgan, whose biography, as told in the 'Gwentian Brut y Tywysogion,' is fabulous and absurd.
Married in 994, he failed to obtain the succession of Morganwg on his father's death in 1030, because the people preferred his great-uncle, Howel ab Morgan [q. v.]; but he became ruler on Howel's death in 1043. Nearly fifty years later he is said to have taken a prominent share in the history of the conquest of Glamorgan by the Normans. He was an enemy of Rhys ab Tewdwr, the king of Brecheiniog. Hard pressed by his enemy, he promised to marry his daughter to Eineon ab Collwyn [q. v.] if the latter could procure him help from England against their common foe Rhys. Eineon obtained the help of Robert Fitzhamon [q.v.], who speedily defeated and slew Rhys, king of Brecheiniog. We know from authentic history that Rhys died in 1093. Iestin paid the Normans liberally and they went their way. He now refused his daughter to Eineon, saying that he would never give either land or daughter to a traitor. Eineon in revenge persuaded Fitzhamon to return. The Normans soon became masters of Iestin's territory and drove Iestin away, Iestin fled to Glastonbury over the Channel; thence he went to Bath and finally back to Gwent, where he died at the monastery of Llangenys at an extraordinarily old age. His sons, Caradog, Madog, and Howel, abandoned their father to his fate and were rewarded with a share of the conquered land, Caradog, the eldest, obtaining the lordship of Aberavon.
The details of the story of the conquest of Glamorgan are mythical; the outline is not in itself unlikely. [For a critical examination of the story see Eineon, son of Collwyn, and Fitzhamon, Robert]. Iestin's historical existence is proved by the existence of his descendants. His grandsons, Morgan, Maredudd, Owain, and Cadwaladr, the four sons of Caradog were joint lords of Aberavon when Archbishop Baldwin and Giraldus Cambrensis made their crusading tour in Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Cambriæ, in Opera, vi. 69, 72, Rolls Ser.) Rhys, another son of Iestin, is also mentioned in a document of the reign of John (Dugdale, Monasticon, v. 259). Some Glamorganshire families claim descent from Iestin (cf. 'the Lords of Avan of the blood of Iestin,' in Archæologia Cambrensis, 3rd ser. xiii. 1-44; and G. T. Clarke, Limbus Patrum Morganiæ et Glamorganiæ, 1886).
[Brut y Tywysogion (Cambrian Archæol. Assoc. 1863); Freeman's William Rufus,ii. 80-2, 87, 614; other authorities are given in the articles on Eineon, son of Collwyn, and Fitzhamon, Robert.]
IEUAN ab Hywel Swrdwal (fl. 1430–1480), Welsh poet and historian, was the son of Hywel Swrdwal, who is described in a memorandum attributed to Rhys Cain, and bearing date 1570, as 'master of arts and chief of song, who wrote the history of the three principalities of Wales, from Adam to the first king, in a fair Latin volume, and from Adam to the time of King Edward I' (Jones, Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards, 1784, p. 87). He is said to have lived at Machynlleth in Montgomeryshire. In 1450 he wrote an English ode according to Welsh rules of assonance and in Welsh orthography, addressed to the Virgin Mary. It was published in the `Cambrian Register' (ii. 299), and forms one of the best records of the pronunciation of English at that period. Many unpublished poems of his are preserved in manuscript at the British Museum (see Add. MSS. 14866, 14906, 14966, 14969, 14991), one of which, on Anna, the mother of the Virgin, is based on one of the oldest printed Latin chronicles, known as 'Fasciculus Temporum.' Some are also at Peniarth in the Hengwrt collection (166 and 476). Like his father he is also said to have written a history of the three principalities from the time of Cadwaladr to that of King Henry VI, but nothing is now known of the manuscript.
[Jones's Welsh Bards, ut supra, p. 87; Montgomeryshire Collections, xi. 243; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cat. of Hengwrt MSS. in Archæologia Cambrensis, commencing 4th S., vol. xv.]
IEUAN ab Rhydderch ab Ieuan Llwyd (fl. 1410–1440), Welsh bard, was a native of Glyn Aeron, Cardiganshire. His father resided at Park Rhydderch; is described as lord of Genau'r Glyn and Tregaron in the same county, and was an ancestor to the Pryse family of Gogerddan (Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, i. 15, 44), and in the female line to the Wynnes of Peniarth. Ieuan ab Rhydderch appears to have been a collector of Welsh manuscripts, for a valuable volume of Welsh mediæval romances, known after him as 'Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch,' once belonged to him, and is now preserved in the Hengwrt collection at Peniarth (MSS.4 and 5). Another volume in the same collection (MS. 450), containing poems by Davydd ab Gwilym, and supposed to be in that poet's own handwriting, has also probably come from Rhydderch's collection. Ieuan's own poetry is chiefly of a religious character, like his poems to the Virgin Mary and to St. David, which are published in the Iolo MSS. (pp. 298, 310). Three extracts from his works, as specimens of curious metres, are also printed in 'Cyfrinach y Beirdd' (pp. 53, 120). Many
