The House of Mathrafal was effectively established in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, and his brother, Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria, and their disastrous raids of 1062–1063 against the King of Wales, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.[6] They installed Bleddyn ap Cynfyn as King over Powys and Gwynedd and kept him and his base in Mathrafal close to the Saxon border.[7]Mathrafal Castle became their seat and effective capital in Powys, replacing the Roman city of Viroconium.[8]
The House of Mathrafal's influence was greatest between 1063 and 1081, until they lost control of Gwynedd to a resurgent Aberffraw family following the Battle of Mynydd Carn. By 1191, the Kingdom of Powys was divided between the Principality of Powys Fadog in the north and the Principality of Powys Wenwynwyn (roughly modern Montgomeryshire) in the south.[9] The first became a more-or-less loyal vassal of Gwynedd; the latter, one of its main competitors.
Historian John Davies points out that, following the division of Powys, the dynasty should not be considered as "equal" to that of the Royal House of Aberffraw or the Royal House of Dinefwr.[10] Mathrafal Castle was utterly destroyed by Gwynedd in 1212 and thenceforth it was entirely dependent on English support for its survival. However, the Mathrafal dynasty continued to exert some influence, undermining and eventually betraying the Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, on behalf of the Plantagenet King, Edward Longshanks, during his Conquest of Wales in 1282–83.[11]
The rebellions were supported by the French Royal House of Valois, and were an attempt not only at gaining the independence of Wales, but also the redivision of England to their relatives, the House of Percy and the Mortimers.[14][15] Despite being crowned as Owain IV of Wales in 1404, and having taking control of all Wales, and having created the first Welsh parliament at Harlech Castle, they eventually lost the war to the English forces of Henry IV and Henry V.[16]
Nonetheless, their efforts didn't go in vain, as their rebellion gave rise to the first Welsh Kings of England, the Royal House of Tudor.[17] The Tudors were their cousins on their mother's side, through the Tudors of Penmynydd, who fought with them during the rebellions, such a Sir Owen Tudor, the second husband of Queen Catherine of France.[18]Glyndŵr was also the wealthiest Welshman in Wales before his downfall in 1415, and captured number of Longshanks’s main castles such as Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris, and besieged Caernarfon.[19][20]
Along with the Royal Houses of Aberffraw, Dinefwr, and Seisyll, the House of Mathrafal traced their descent from King Merfyn the Oppressor who, along with his son, King Rhodri the Great, established control over northern and western Wales.[48][49] Rhodri replaced King Cyngen ap Cadell as ruler of the Kingdom of Powys after the latter died while on a pilgrimage to Rome.[50] His father, Merfyn, had previously allied his family with the last rulers of Powys by marrying Princess Nest, the daughter or sister of King Cyngen.[51][note 1]
As a consequence of Merfyn's alliance, King Cyngen's legitimate heirs were either exiled or reduced to the level of minor land owners (e.g., the family of Sir Gruffudd Vychan).[60] Yet, one of the last Kings of Powys, Cadell ap Brochfael, maternal great-grandfather of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, the first King of the House of Mathrafal, claimed descent from Cyngen's son Aeddan, who seems to have ruled straight after.
Other noble families claimed descent from another of Cyngen's sons, Elisedd, who is mentioned as killing his older brother Gruffydd in the Annales Cambriae. It is therefore likely that Gwynedd's hegemony over Powys was merely propaganda, intended to glorify Gwynedd at the expense of Powys before the time of Prince Owain Gwynedd. Therefore, there was a lot of political instability as the House had to rule two Kingdoms, Powys and Gwynedd.
In the traditional accounts, Rhodri the Great divided his Kingdom among his sons and gave Powys to his youngest, Prince Merfyn. King Cadell in Ceredigion then dispossessed his brother and added Powys to his inheritance.[61] It is possible, however, that Powys remained independent until its 916 annexation by Cadell's son Hywel Dda, who also conquered Dyfed and Gwynedd and established what has become known as the realm of Deheubarth. On the death of Hywel's grandson in 999, Maredudd ab Owain, the realm splintered: Irishmen usurped Gwynedd and falsely passed themselves off as Maredudd's heir in Dyfed. These were removed by King Llywelyn ap Seisyll, from a cadet branch of the Aberffraw line in the commote of Rhuddlan.
^The view that Ethyllt was Merfyn's mother and Nest his wife is held by Davies[52] and many others, including David E. Thornton[51] and Lloyd,[53] who notes the consistency of the genealogies in Jesus College MS 20 from Oxford university and Harleian MS 3859 against the contrary account that Nest was the mother and Ethyllt the wife. Thornton gives Nest as Cadell's sister.[51]
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