Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was undoubtedly the outstanding Welsh ruler of the 11th century and the most distinguished prince to emerge since the days of Hywel Dda. He reigned from 1039 to 1063, but was an unexpected contender for power. By 1039 he was probably established in Powys, and in that year Iago ap Idwal of Gwynedd was murdered by his own men, perhaps with Gruffydd as an accomplice, and emerged as the claimant for the northern kingdom. He was totally ruthless, his hands
of a giant historical jigsaw puzzle." In fact Pen y Bryn is the lost palace of the Princes Llywelyn, Llywelyn Fawr (the Great) and his grandson, Llywelyn the Last, dating back to 1211. It is where Joan, King John’s daughter and wife of Llywelyn Fawr lived and died, and it holds the key to the tragic story of Gwenllian, the first and last true born Princess of Wales. Gwenllian was the only daughter of Llywelyn the Last. Llewelyn had reluctantly been granted the title of "Prince of Wales" in perpetuity
Owain Lawgoch Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great) was the father of two ambitious sons, both of whom were destined to become intertwined in the 13th-century dynastic struggles between Wales and England. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was his father's natural son and the eldest, while Dafydd was the son of Llywelyn's wife Joan, herself the natural daughter of King John. Both sons were apparently determined to succeed their father and carry forward the country's struggle against their Norman would-be conquerors
Early Medieval Wales Towards the end of the 6th century the Angles and Saxons in eastern Britain began to entertain designs on the western lands. The inability of the independent western peoples to unify against this threat left the most powerful kingdom, Gwynedd, as the center of cultural and political resistance, a position it has retained until today. The weaker groups were unable to hold the invaders and after the Battle of Dyrham, near Gloucester in 577, the Britons in Cornwall were separated