land more directly under the sway of his house. By his marriage with Nest, sister of Cyngen, the last King of Powys of the line of Cadell Ddyrnllug, his son Rhodri becomes the immediate ruler of that kingdom in addition to his own. By the marriage of the same son, Rhodri, to Angharad, sister of Gwgon, the last King of Seisyllwg, a kingdom comprising the two patrias of Ceredigion and Ystrad Tywi, these lands also fall under the direct sway of his house.[1] Thus when Rhodri comes into full possession of his dominions, his immediate rule extends from the Irish to the Severn Seas, including roughly the whole of that Welsh Wales which remained under native rulers throughout the Norman period, together with those portions which are described above as fluctuating between Welsh and Norman control. Dyved, Brycheiniog, Glywysing, and Gwent are the only patrias which remain outside the immediate rule of his house, and against these he adopts or rather continues the aggressive policy which aims at bringing them also under the same immediate control of his family. Rhodri was killed by the English in 877,[2] but he remained in the memory of Wales as one who had achieved more real power over the Welsh
- ↑ Jesus Coll. MS. 20, Peds. XVIII, XX, XXI. For Seisyllwg, see Oxford Mabinogion, p. 25, at the end of the Mabinogi of Pwyll. It is so called from Seisyll (Ped. XXVI, Y Cymm. IX. 180), King of Ceredigion sometime in the eighth century, who deprived Dyved of the cantrevs which together were afterwards known as the gwlad of Ystrad Tywi. Before this deprivation the kings of Dyved had come into possession of Brycheiniog through Ceindrech, a lady of the line of Brychan. Brycheiniog afterwards, however, appears to have had a line of its own, represented in Asser's day by Helised ap Teudubr. De rebus gestis Aelfredi, c. 80 (Stevenson's Asser, p. 66).
- ↑ Annus CCCCXXXIII in the Ann. Camb., which in the era of the Annales gives 445 + 432 = 877.
