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Welsh Celebrities & Personalities

Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (?-1240)

Welsh prince, called "The Great", he was the grandson of Owain Gwynedd, a powerful ruler in Northern Wales. Exiled as a child by his uncle Dafydd, he returned in 1194 and drove him from power. By 1202 most of north Wales was under his control. In 1205 he married Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John, but when Llywelyn tried to extend his authority to the south, John invaded and conquered most of Gwynedd. By 1212 most of this ground had been won back by Llywelyn allied to barons opposed to John, and he was Prince of all Wales not ruled by the Normans by 1216. His rights were secured by clauses 56 to 58 of the Magna Carta, but this did not prevent his being forced to retreat, in 1223, behind a boundary drawn between Cardigan and Builth, although his rule was still accepted by most Welsh princes in the south. In his later years he turned the government over to his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn, and in 1239 retired to a Cistercian monastery at Aberconwy, where he died the following year.