Vol I File 4: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

Part C.

Early Welsh Ancestors

1. Welsh Monarchs to Llewellyn The Great and His Immediate Descendants

Ref: Jones, "The Princes and Principality of Wales"

Ref: Wurts, "Magna Charta, Vol. III"

First, there is the dynasty of Cunnedda (Line of Gwynedd)

1. Cunedda Weledig (Cunedda the Great), was the first in the dynasty of Cunnedda, the line of Gwynedd. He was a Roman officer, by birth half Welsh, and became King of the Welsh about A.D. 400. He married and had a son, Einion.
2. Einion the Impetuous, King of Gwynedd, had a son, Caswallon.
3. Caswallon (Cadwallon), Caswallon the Longhanded, Prince of North Wales, extended his father's kingdom and died in 517.
4. Maelgwn Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd, of much good and evil, died of the yellow plague in 547.
5. Rhun, a great king, tall, with red-brown curly hair. He extended his rule to the Firthm of Forth and died about 586.
6. Beli, King of Gwynedd and Prince of North Wales, died in 599.
7. Iago, King of Gwynedd, but soon abdicated in favor of his son, became a monk and died in 613.
8. Cadfan, reigned in peace and died about 620. A tombstone marks his grave in Anglesey.
9. Caswallon (Cadwallon), King of Gwynedd and Prince of North Wales, a great defender of his people, had a stormy career and was killed in battle in 634.
10. Cadwalader Fendigaid, the third Blessed Sovereign, last king of the ancient Britons, gave protection within all his lands to the Christians who fled from the pagan Saxons. A great warrior, he became a monk, made a pilgrimage to Rome to receive the Habit of a religious Order from Pope Sergius, and died in the great plague of 664.
11. Idwal (Edwal) Iwrch, Prince of North Wales, ruled over Anglesey, and died in 712. He married Agatha, daughter of Alan, Count of Brittany, and had Roderic.
12. Roderic (Rhodri) Malwinnoe (Molwynog), Prince of North Wales, who ruled over Anglesey and died in 754. He married Margaret of Ireland, daughter of Duptory, King of Ireland, and had Cynan.
13. Cynan Dindaethwy., who became King of Wales in 755, ruled over Triudaethwy and died in 811. He married Matilda of Flint, daughter of the Earl of Flint, and they had a daughter, Eisyllt (Ethil), his heiress.
14. Eisyllt (Ethil) , Queen of Wales, married Gwriad (Gwiard) Prince of Dehubarth, King of Manaw (seventh in descent from Uther Pendragon, the legendary King Arthur's father).
15. Merfyn (Marfyn) Frych, (Mervin the Freckled) married Nesta, Queen of Powys, of ancient lineage, and had Rhodri. Merfyn (Marfyn) died in 844.
16. Rhodri Mawr, (Roderick the Great) was born in 844. Uniting three kingdoms, he became King of all Wales, having inherited North Wales from his father, Powys from his mother, and South Wales from his wife. He was slain in battle in 878, having married Ankaret, Queen of South Wales, thirteenth in descent from Cunedda, No. 1 of his line. The kingdoms he united were at his death divided among their three sons. The three sons were as follows:
- 1. Anarawd, heir to North Wales and ancestor of Llewellyn. See below.
- 2. Mervyn, heir to Powys.
- 3. Cadell, heir to South Wales, died about 909. His son, Hywel Dha (Howell the Great), Prince of Wales, compiled a famous code of laws, and after a long and peaceful reign, died in 948. He married Eleanor, daughter of the last king of Dyfed (Pembrokeshire) and the ninth in descent from Cadwgan, living in 650. His daughter Ankaret and her husband Tewdwr, were grandparents of Tudor Mawr, from whom descend the Carew, Awbrey, and other families. He was the great-great grandfather of Bleddyn, as mentioned below.
  
  This is the lineage according to both references cited above, except for the descent from Rhodri Mawr. There is a marked difference from that point on. Both references agree on the following lineage, however.
17. Anarawd, the eldest son, Prince of North Wales, died 916.
18. Idwal Foel, Prince of North Wales, died in 942, married Avendreg of Powys, his cousin, and had a son, Meyric.
19. Meyric (Meurig), Prince of North Wales, died in 986.
20. Idwal, Prince of North Wales, died in 996.
21. Iago, Prince of North Wales, died in 1039, married Avendreg, and had a son, Cynan.
22. Cynan of North Wales, married Raignalt, great granddaughter of Brian-Boru, King of Ireland, and had Griffith. He was exiled in Ireland.
23. Griffith (Gruffydd) ap Cynan, Prince of North Wales, married Ankaret of Tegaingl, and died in 1137.
24. Owen (Owain) Gwinedh (Gwynedd), Prince of North Wales, married Gladys, who was descended from Lady Godiva.

Godiva, died 1080, a Saxon lady, the wife of Leofric III., died 1057, Earl of Mercia, Lord of Coventry, a great great grandson of Alfred the Great. She is reported in history as having ridden nude through the city streets of Coventry, in order to protest the unfair taxation imposed by her husband. The Godiva procession was instituted May 31, 1678 as part of the Coventry Fair, was celebrated at intervals until 1826. Their son was Alfgar III who married (2) Elfgifu, daughter of King Ethelred II., and his wife, Elfled. Their daughter Lucia de Mercia became the wife of Ivo de Tailbois and the mother of Lucia Tailbois, who was the ancestress of several Magna Charta barons through her daughter Adeliza Meschines. See elsewhere. Alfgar and Elfgifu were the parents of Ealgith (Edith or Agatha), who was married about 1057 (1) Griffith, Prince of North Wales and had Nesta, born 1058, who was married to Trahhaern of Arwystle (son of Caradoc and grandson of Cynfyn and Queen Ankaret) and had Llyarch, Prince of North Wales, who married Dyddgu and had Gladys, who was married to Owen Gwinedh, grandparents of Llewellyn the Great. Ealgith's second husband was Harold II, born 1022, crowned King of England January 6, 1066, slain in the battle of Hastings October 14, 1066.

Owen died in 1170.
25. Iorwerth Drwyndwn , Prince of North Wales, married Maret, daughter of Madoc, son of Meredith, son of Bleddyn, a wise and gentle ruler, who died in 1075, and his wife and Haer.
26. Llewellyn The Great, born 1173, was in 1201 the greatest Prince in all Wales. He married (1) Tangwyal of Rhos, of ancient lineage, and they had the following children:
- 1. Helen, eldest daughter, married (1) John le Scot, Earl of Huntingdon, from which there was no issue; and (2) Robert de Quincy, the Younger. Robert died in 1257, in the tournament at Blie. See his ancestral lineage in the Quincy Line in Volume II. They had three daughters as follows:
  - 1. Anne Quincy, a nun
  - 2. Joane Quincy, married Humphrey de Bohun, the younger.
  - 3. Margaret Quincy, wife of Baldwin Wake, a feudal lord who died in 1282, with a son, John Wake.
- 2. Gladys Dhu. See below.
- 3. Gruffydd (Griffith) ap Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, died 1242. He married Seneca and had a son, Llewellyn ap Gruffydd (Llewellyn II), who succeeded his uncle David as Prince of North Wales in 1246. In 1256 he declared war on King Henry III. and was able to make himself lord of North and South Wales. He also assisted the Barons. He was surprised and killed in 1282, in a skirmish with the Mortimers, near Builth, in Central Wales. He married Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort, Lord Leicester and his wife Eleanor, daughter of King John.
- 4. Margaret of Wales (fourth child of Llewellyn the Great, said by some to have been the daughter of his second wife, Joan, see below) married (1) John de Braos, surnamedTadody, and (2) Walter Clifford. There was issue from both marriages. From the first marriage there were the following children:
  - 1. William de Braose, married Isabel Clare. They had a son, William de Braose, who married Aliva Moulton. They had a daughter, Alive (Alice) Braose, who married John de Mowbray, great grandson of William de Mowbray, the Magna Charta Surety. See the continuation of this lineage in Volume II.
- 5. Angharad, married Maelgwn Fychan, the only marriage in which both parties were Welsh. From their marriage a line descends through nine generations to King Henry VII of England, who married Elizabeth, a descendant of Gladys Dhu.
  
  Llewellyn married in 1206 (2) Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John of England (by Agatha Ferrers). Joan died February 2, 1237. They had a son, Davydd.
  
  At first Llewellyn was a friend of King John, but their friendship soon ended and in 1211 John reduced him to submission. However, in the following year, Llewellyn recovered all his losses in North Wales and, in 1215, he took Shrewsbury. His rising had been encouraged by the Pope, by France and by the English Barons. Throughout his reign John and Llewellyn were friends or foes according to the dictates of intelligent self-interest. Llewellyn aimed at a united Wales under his rule and resisting the threat to local independence offered by the increasing royal power of the kingdom of England. Later Llewellyn managed to make alliances with the Anglo-Norman lords of the Marches, not only with his old friend the Earl of Chester, but also with the Mortimers and the Braoses. With these families Llewellyn had personal links, as his daughters married members of all of them. Llewelyn died at sixty-five from a stroke on April 11, 1240, at Aberconway Abbey.
27. Gladys Dhu, ("Dark-Eyed") married (1) Reginald de Braose; and in 1230 (2) Ralph Mortimer II She died in 1251. Ralph died in 1246. They had a son, Roger.
28. Roger Mortimer II, died 1282, married Matilda (Maud) de Braose, died in 1301.
- 1. Ralph Mortimer.
- 2. Edmund Mortimer, died July 17, 1304. He was the father of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who died in 1330; he was the grandfather of Edmund Mortimer, who died in 1331; and the great-grandfather of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who died in 1360. The line continues through Edmund, Earl of March, died in 1369, Roger, Earl of March, died in 1398, married Eleanor Holland, daughter of Thomas Holand, died in 1360, and his wife Joan of Woodstock, who died in 1385. This line continues to King Edward IV., King Richard III., and King Edward V.
- 3. Roger Mortimer III, 1st Earl of March, was born in 1287, died in 1330. He married Joane Geneville, born in 1285, died in 1356. Roger was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. This lineage is shown elsewhere in the Mortimer Line in Volume II.
- 4. Isabella Mortimer. See below.
29. Isabella Mortimer, married John Fitz Alan.
30. Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, married Alasia, daughter of the Marquis de Saluzzo.
31. Edmund Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, married Alice Warren.
32. Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, married Eleanor Plantaganet.

This direct ancestral lineage is continued elsewhere. See the Fitz Alan Line in Volume II.

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The following genealogy traces the descent from Richard and Eleanor through several more rulers of England into the mid-15th century. These are not direct ancestors.

33. Joane Fitz Alan, died 1419, married Humphrey de Bohun IX, died 1372. They had a daughter, Mary.

34. Mary Bohun, married Henry of Bolingbroke, later, King Henry IV., who died in 1413, son of John of Gaunt and his wife Blanche Plantaganet of Lancaster. They had a son, Henry V. This was the beginning of the House of Lancaster. They also had a daughter, Philippa Plantaganet, who became the wife of John I., King of Portugal, 1385-1433. Their son was Eduardo (Edward) I., King of Portugal, 1385-1433, who married Eleanor of Aragon. There was issue.

35. King Henry V, died in 1422, married Catherine of Valois.

36. King Henry VI, died in 1471, married Margaret of Anjou.

37. Edward, Prince of Wales, born in 1453, died in 1471.

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