Antigua and the Antiguans. Volume 2

Page 337

APPENDIX.

315

the Welsh historians, more modestly, the " Prince of Brecknock." To Hugan succeeded DRUFFIN, SO humbled as to be persuaded or compelled to row King Edgar in his barge on the river Dee, being one of the tributary kings who acted that derogatory part, which served to inflate the pride of that vain-glorious but powerful English monarch. Druffin m. Crusella, dau. of Idwal ap Meyrick, and was succeeded by his son, MAYNARCH, who m. Ellen, dau. of Eineon ap Seliff, Lord of the Cantred of Seliff. Maynarch was succeeded by BLETHIN, the last prince of his house and family ; for William Rufus promising to Bernard Newmarch (England at that time having been effectually conquered and possessed by the Normans) all he could conquer in Wales, that adventurer (at the time gentleman of the bedchamber to this the second of the Norman kings) set out for the principality, and the enfeebled prince collecting, on a sudden, all his diminished forces, a battle ensued in the neighbourhood of Brecknock, in which he was worsted and himself slain. The conqueror and his eleven Norman knights (whom, tempted by the prize, he had invited to partake of his enterprise) entered into possession ; and the last act of royalty shewn to this unhappy prince by his subjects and followers was the conveying his corse to the Abbey of Strata Florida, in Cardiganshire, and there interring it amongst the princes of Wales, with all the pomp the circumstances allowed. Thus, after a possession of between five and six hundred years, was this family divested of every mark of regal dignity. Rhys Goch, however, his brother, was permitted to retain a small possession on the confines of the county, entitled the lordship of Ystradew, (afterwards usurped by the Clares, and came into possession of the Herberts, Earls of Pembroke.) Rhys Goch, or Rhys the Red, married Joan, daughter of Cadogan* ap Elistan Glorith, (whose arms are still quartered by the Byam family,) and by her had KYNWILLEN, who married Jonnett, dau. and co-heir of Hawell, Prince of Caerleon, (to whom Henry II. allowed that city, and twelve miles around circumadjacent country,) and by her/whose arms are still likewise borne by the Byams, Kynwillen had KYNWELL, who married Gladwys, dau. of Sitsilt ap Duvenwall, Lord of Gwent, and seventh Baron of Abergavenny, by right of tenure of the castle thereof, (from the Norman conquest,) and by her had ARTHUR, who married Ellen, the dau. of Meirick ap Cradog, (ancestor of the Matthews, and of the present Earls of Llandaff,) and had HOWELL, who married Jone, dau. of Grono ap Llowarth, Lord of Kebor, and had GRIFFITH, who married Jonnett, dau. and sole heir of Grono ap Treherne ap Blaith ap Elvarch, Lord of Penrose, in Monmouthshire, a possession which she conveyed to her husband's family, in whose family it * Ancestor of the now Earls of Cadogan.


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