getting his position as champion of the Welsh race, he used with consummate skill the differences and rivalries of the English. He treated as an equal with the Earls of Pembroke and Chester, and even with the king of Scots. Under him the Welsh race, tongue, and traditions began a new lease of life.
Llywelyn was celebrated for his liberality (Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, iii. 200), especially to churchmen. He granted charters to the house of black canons at Beddgelert (Monasticon, vi. 200). In his old age he founded the convent of Franciscan friars at Llanvaes in Anglesey, where his wife Joan was buried (ib. vi. 1545; Brut y Tywysogion, p. 327). But his chief church work was the establishment of the famous Cistercian abbey of Aberconway. In a charter of confirmation, dated the tenth year of his principality, he marked out very carefully the limits of the large estate with which he endowed the abbey, and indicated the extensive franchises bestowed on the monks. Among the bitter was the curious privilege that the monastery was not answerable for moneys borrowed by the monks unless their borrowing had the consent of the abbot (Monasticon, vi. 671-4). The date generally given for the foundation is 1186, but this is too early for Llywelyn to have had much to do with it. However, in that year the Cistercians of Strata Florida in Ceredigion seem to have sent out a daughter house to Rhedynog Velen in Gwynedd (Brut y Tywysogion, p. 233). This may have been taken under the care and patronage of Llywelyn a few years later. In 1200 the abbey was in full working order(ib.p.255). Another proof of Llywelyn's zeal for the church was his early patronage of Giraldus Cambrensis in his efforts to make himself bishop of St. Davids and shake off the allegiance of the Welsh church to Canterbury (Giraldus, Opera, iii. 197, 200, 209, 244).
Llywelyn was an equally bountiful patron of the native bards, who returned his favour by warmly singing his praises, and whose work in kindling anew the spirit of Welsh nationality was made possible by the victories of their hero. Cynddelw, who died in 1200, celebrated Llywelyn's earlier victories. Llywarch ab Llywelyn, Davydd Benvras, Einiawn ab Gwrgawn, Einiawn ab Gwnlchmai, Einiawn Wan, Gwrgawn, Elidyr Sais, and Llywelyn Vardd addressed odes and other poems to him, or celebrated his virtues after his death (Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, pp. 175, 189, 210-17, 217-19, 225, 230, 234-5, 240, 247, ed. 1870). Elegies on him were composed by Davydd Benvras and Einiawn Wan (ib. pp. 219, 233).
Llywelyn's family play a considerable part in his history. His success in marrying them to English nobles of the first rank attests both his social and political importance. His eldest son, Gruffydd [see Gruffydd ab Llewelyn, d. 1244], was born of a Welsh concubine. By the same lady Llywelyn had a daughter, who married William de Lacy and played some small part in Irish history (Royal Letters, i. 502). Llywelyn's children by Joan include his son and successor, Davydd [see Davydd II], and probably Helen, who married John the Scot, the last of the old line of the Earls of Chester. Helen was suspected of having poisoned her husband (Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, iii. 394). This was in 1237. Very soon afterwards she married Robert de Quincy, an act which excited her father's indignation (Dunstaple Annals, p. 147). Llywelyn had two other daughters, by what mother does not seem clear. One of these, Gladys, called Ddu or the Dark, married first Reginald de Braose, by whom she had no children; William de Braose, the object of Llywelyn's jealousy, being Reginald's son by another wife. After Reginalds death in 1228, Gladys married Ralph Mortimer, fifth lord of Wigmore, by whom she was the mother of Roger, the sixth lord [see Mortimer, Roger, d. 1282]. Through his marriage the house of Mortimer became after 1283 the legitimate representatives of the old line of Gwynedd. Gladys died in 1251. Margaret, the remaining daughter of Llywelyn, married first John de Braose of Brember, and after his death Walter de Clifford (Eyton, Shropshire, v. 147, 161, 183; Brut y Tywysogion, p. 304). No trust can be placed in the statement in the romance of Fulk Fitzwarine [q. v.] that after Joan's death Llywelyn married Eva Fitzwarine (cf., however, Eyton, viii. 87). The marriage connections of Llywelyn's family with the great houses of the west and with bastard branches of the royal house are among the best indications of his power and importance.
[Brut y Tywysogion (Rolls Ser.), a better Welsh text is given in the new edition of Rhys and J. G. Evans; Annales Cambriæ; Matthew Puris's Historia Major, Annales Monastici, Royal Letters, Flores Historiarum, Walter of Coventry, Giraldus Cambrensis, all in Rolls Ser.; Rymer's Fœdera, Record edition; Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Ellis, Caley, and Bandinel; Eyton's Shropshire; Myvyrian Archaiology; Stephons's Literature of the Kymry.]
LLYWELYN ab GRUFFYDD (d. 1282), prince of Wales, was the second son of Gruffydd ab Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d. 1244) [q. v.] and his wife Senena (Matt. Paris, Hist. Major, v. 718). Llywelyn ab Iorwerth [q. v.] was his grandfather. On his father's death in
