The pragmatist who unified Wales

Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (died 1240) used power and politics to bring peace
Wise marriage Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (left) made a strategic match with Joan
(right), influential daughter of King John of England.
The prince known as Llywelyn the Great was the most significant of Wales’
native rulers. He succeeded in unifying the Welsh and resisting the English as
much through shrewd diplomacy as force. Before Llywelyn’s birth, Norman
occupation had reduced Wales to three competing kingdoms: Gwynedd (north-
west), Powys (mid-east) and Deheubarth (southwest). His grandfather, Owain
Gwynedd, had tried to create unity through force as a “Prince of [all] Wales”, but
Owain’s death had brought political disintegration. By his teens, Llywelyn began
to lead men in battle to unify Gwynedd, and by 1199, aged just 26, he was “Prince
of all North Wales”. He then surpassed his predecessors by proving himself not
merely a warlord but also an astute politician. His best personal decision was to
marry Joan, the illegitimate but beloved daughter of King John of England. This
extraordinary woman’s repeated interventions with her father and, later, her half-
brother Henry III proved crucial in maintaining or re-establishing good relations
with England. Llywelyn also made powerful allies by marrying off his daughter
Gwladus and Helen to English lords. This allowed Llywelyn to play an inside-
outside game, leveraging royal favour (aided by his wife) against his Welsh
enemies while using English alliances to his advantage against the king.
Capitalising on John’s displeasure with rival Gwenwynwyn ap Owain of Powys,
by 1210 Llywelyn had extended his domination to native-controlled mid- and
south Wales. John tried to check Llywelyn’s ascendancy but in 1215, while John
was tussling with his English barons over Magna Carta, Llywelyn summoned a
pan-Wales army and invaded Anglicised south Wales, capturing royal Cardigan
and Carmarthen. He then held a meeting of Welsh lords at Aberdyfi that was a
parliament in all but name, nearly two centuries before Owain Glyndwr’s famed
Machnylleth “parliament” of 1404. From 1216 until his death in 1240, Llywelyn’s
fortunes went from strength to strength. He retained almost all of his gains in
Wales, including those made at English expense. In his magnanimity, he was wise
enough to manage indirectly the affairs of the old kingdoms of Powys and
Deheubarth. He worked to establish and enforce inheritance settlements, thereby
creating dependants rather than coarsely annexing territories. And, with
remarkable prudence, he declined to use the title “Prince of Wales”, though he
advanced Welsh law and the position of the prince within it. In the hours before
his death, he donned a Cirstercian monk’s robe as a mark of humility. He was
buried at Aberconwy Abbey. Using as much diplomacy as force, Llywelyn
created political stability and relative security for Wales – which it had not
enjoyed either since the arrival of the Normans, and would never again know the
like under native rule.