Ednyfed Fychan
Ednyfed Fychan ap Cynfrig was a Welsh nobleman who served as distain of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in north Wales. He held this position under the princes of Gwynedd for almost thirty years. Ednyfed's tenure as distain appears to have coincided with the transformation of the office from one of domestic service to that of being the prince of Gwynedd's closest adviser and agent. He is recorded witnessing Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's charters, carrying out diplomatic missions, administering justice, and perhaps even leading military action on the prince's behalf. After Llywelyn's death in 1240, Ednyfed served in the same position under Llywelyn's son and successor Dafydd, and is repeatedly recorded leading diplomatic missions on Dafydd's behalf to his rebellious brother Gruffudd and King Henry III of England. Ednyfed died some eight months after Dafydd, probably on 1 October 1246.
Ednyfed established a ministerial dynasty which would serve the princes of Gwynedd for over thirty years after his death until the Edwardian conquest. His preeminence allowed him to marry Gwenllian, a daughter of the Lord Rhys, prince of Deheubarth. Ednyfed's sons succeeded him as disteiniaid and his descendants held a monopoly on the position until the final campaign of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in December 1282, the turning point of Edward I's conquest of Wales. Even after the Conquest, Ednyfed's heirs and the heirs of his brothers, known as the Wyrion Eden 'descendants of Ednyfed', enjoyed special privileges in their tenure first granted by the Llywelyns. They held their lands free from all renders other than military service, which allowed them to become very wealthy and influential. Ednyfed was granted land across Wales and many of his descendants served in the new English administration. Ednyfed's grandson Tudur Hen ap Goronwy established the branch of the family known as the Tudors of Penmynydd in Anglesey, which produced leading ecclesiastical and administrative figures of the fourteenth century in Wales. Owen Tudor, grandfather of Henry VII, was a member of this family, thus making Ednyfed the first distinguished ancestor of the House of Tudor, the house that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603.
Early life
Little is known of Ednyfed's early life, but he was born into an established family related to the Second Dynasty of Gwynedd. Ednyfed was the eldest son of Cynfrig ab Iorwerth, whose grandfather Gwgon established Betws Gwyrion Gwgon in modern Denbighshire. Ednyfed's description as bychan usually would suggest his father or grandfather was also named Ednyfed, but as this is not the case, it may instead refer to his size. Ednyfed's family home was the territory around Abergele in Rhos, a cantref of the Perfeddwlad. Ednyfed's mother was Angharad ferch Hwfa of Cyffylliog in Dyffryn Clwyd, whose mother in turn was Gwenllian, daughter of Owain Gwynedd, king of Gwynedd. Ednyfed's family was very influential in Rhos and claimed as its founder Marchudd ap Cynan of, whom the sixteenth-century poet and genealogist Gruffudd Hiraethog says was Proctor Deffender and Arglwydd Protector to the ninth-century king of Gwynedd Rhodri Mawr, and whom the seventeenth-century antiquary Robert Vaughan calls 'Lord of Abergeleu'. Like many other Welsh families, they ultimately claimed descent from a legendary figure of the Old North, in this case from one 'Cadrod Calchfynydd', son of Cynwyd Cynwydion, supposed ancestor of the royal dynasty of Strathclyde.Henry VII, a lineal descendant of Ednyfed, appointed a commission in about 1490 to examine the pedigree of his father Owen Tudor. The original report of this commission does not survive, but its text was printed in William Wynne's 1697 version of David Powel's 1584 Historie of Cambria. This commission recorded that Ednyfed fought against King John during the reign of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth and slew three English lords one morning in battle. After showing the heads of these lords to Llywelyn, the prince thereafter allowed Ednyfed to bear three bloody heads as his arms in token of his victory, which were also borne by his descendants, including the Tudors of Penmynydd.
Sir J. E. Lloyd, professor of history at the University College of North Wales from 1899 to 1930, identified this event with the invasion of Gwynedd by Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester, and Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, in 1210. The earl sought to take Perfeddwlad for himself and built castles in Holywell and Degannwy, and in the next year John himself invaded and ravaged Gwynedd, heading an army with most of the other Welsh princes under him. While this campaign was disastrous for Llywelyn, who only regained his position by 1213, this may have been when Ednyfed first caught the prince's eye and began his long career of service to the princes of Gwynedd. The folk memory of Ednyfed's actions may be plausible, but the grant of arms "almost certainly significantly after his death in 1246", according to David Stephenson, Honorary Research Fellow in Welsh History at Bangor University.
Service to the princes of Gwynedd
Service under Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (c. 1217–1240)
Ednyfed Fychan is first recorded in Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's service in the role of a distain in summer 1217, when he heads a witness list in a grant by the prince of Llandimôr, Gower, to Morgan Gam of Afan. Ednyfed was preceded in this role by a certain Gwyn ab Ednywain, who was probably first distain to Gruffudd ap Cynan, ruler of Meirionnydd and Gwynedd Uwch Conwy before being overthrown by Llywelyn in 1199. The terminus post quem for the beginning of Ednyfed's ascension to the position is Gwyn's last recorded action in the role, heading a list of witnesses confirming a donation of land by Llywelyn to Strata Marcella on 25 November 1209. According to David Stephenson, Ednyfed was "almost certainly" Gwyn's immediate successor, though it is impossible to date the beginning of Ednyfed's tenure in the office.In March 1218, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth signed three agreements with Henry III of England, known collectively as the Treaty of Worcester. These confirmed Llywelyn's occupation of Powys and the royal castles of Cardigan and Carmarthen which he had won in the campaigns of 1215–16. However, these agreements also asserted the king's overlordship over Llywelyn and other Welsh lords, who were required to do homage to him. In the third of these agreements, confirming Llywelyn's right to hold the king's court in the royal castles, Ednyfed appears as a negotiator and leads the list of the prince's officials and leading men of the principality who are bound to the terms of the treaty. These important supporters of the prince would "be absolved from homage and fealty to and may aid and his heirs to ensure that full amends are made for breaches of the terms by Llywelyn" should the prince betray the terms of the agreement, and could "... return to Llywelyn's homage and fealty without first making satisfaction to the king or his heirs concerning the aforesaid breaches".
Similarly, Ednyfed appears to have been a chief negotiator in the 1222 talks which led to the marriage of Llywelyn's daughter Helen to John of Scotland. The pair were married "for the purpose of effecting a lasting peace" between Llywelyn and Ranulf de Blondeville, John's uncle, against whom Ednyfed had fought some twelve years earlier yet became the prince's closest ally in England. Perhaps in recognition of his services in upholding the treaty of Worcester, Henry III granted Ednyfed letters of protection in 1229 for some of his holdings: Llansadwrn in Ystrad Tywi and Cellan and Llanrhystud in Ceredigion.
Ednyfed was not only a diplomat, however. In 1223, per the terms of the Treaty of Worcester, he acted with the king's authority and as Llywelyn's chief representative, determining the limits of lands won by Maelgwn ap Rhys, Rhys Gryg, and Owain ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth in the campaign of 1215–16. The findings of an inquisition held on 28 October 1278 recorded Ednyfed, "justice of the prince", had arbitrated a land dispute between two lords of Mechain some decades before, which suggests he also held legal authority in Llywelyn's principality. This is further supported by an occasion in 1234 when Ednyfed arbitrated a dispute in the lordship of Madog ap Gruffudd Maelor between the monks of Valle Crucis and the freemen of Llangollen over a dispute about the ownership of a certain fishing weir on the Dee.
Over Easter 1230, Llywelyn found his wife Joan, daughter of King John, in compromising circumstances with the marcher lord of Brecon William de Braose, whom Llywelyn consequently had hanged on 2 May that year. The execution of de Braose did not cause an incident with the English, but hostilities between prince and king broke out in April 1231, when Llywelyn attacked de Braose's former castle at Radnor, which was subsequently being managed by the powerful justiciar Hubert de Burgh. The royal counter-campaign of 1231 headed by de Burgh stalled, and de Burgh was removed from his position in 1232. Ednyfed Fychan led a diplomatic mission to Henry III which saw a truce extended between Llywelyn and the king for a year on 30 November 1231. Ednyfed made two further visits in May and November 1232 together with Llywelyn's wife Joan to further negotiate with the king's representatives.
However, in 1233, Llywelyn threw in his lot with Richard Marshal's baronial rebellion against Henry III. While Llywelyn was making gains in this short conflict, he sent Ednyfed and Dafydd ap Llywelyn, his son by Joan, to negotiate terms with the king at Worcester in June 1233. When Richard was murdered by his allies in Ireland in early 1234, Llywelyn sealed a lasting peace with the English Crown in June that year with the Pact of Myddle. Llywelyn appears to have personally negotiated the terms of this treaty enacting a peace between Henry and the prince from 25 July 1234, extending for two years, but which was renewed yearly until Llywelyn's death. No castles could be built or repaired in the whole of the March, and Llywelyn was confirmed in his possession of Buellt and Cardigan. Henry requested Ednyfed be present when extending the truce in 1237, and he appears at the list of the prince's ministers who swore to uphold the truce upon its renewal in 1238. According to Matthew Paris, Llywelyn suffered a massive paralytic stroke in late spring 1237. This led Dafydd to assume effective rulership of Gwynedd, and therefore Ednyfed's service in this period was even more crucial to the governance of the principality.
Because there was peace between Llywelyn and the king after 1234, Ednyfed decided to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and received safe conduct through England from the king in June 1235. Whilst waiting to depart from London in the same month, the king ordered Ednyfed be given a silver cup worth five marks. However, this was later cancelled, "because he did not have it". This attests to Ednyfed's importance at the court of Llywelyn, as well as the esteem in which Ednyfed was held by Henry III.