tertained the archbishop at Rhuddlan Castle, which seems to have been his residence and the centre of his power (Giraldus, Opera, vi. 134). But Owain Cyveiliog, Gruffudd of Bromfield, and the Earl of Chester must have pressed him nearly on the south and east. The nominal king of Gwynedd's actual sway extended little beyond the Vale of Clwyd, and was there probably dependent on the support of the English. But even within these narrow limits Davydd's power was soon destroyed. Llewelyn, son of Iorwerth, Davydd's half-brother, was only twelve years old when his partisans began to harass Davydd. Their success soon proved, as Giraldus thought, that Providence was on the side of the legitimate stock against the offspring of an incestuous union. In 1194 Llewelyn, in alliance with Rhodri and the sons of Cynan, completely overpowered Davydd. He first drove him out of all his lands but three castles, and finally compelled him to take refuge in England. Some manuscripts of the ‘Brut y Tywysogion’ mention him as defeated and imprisoned along with Llewelyn in 1197 by Gwenwynwyn of Powys, when that chief conquered Arwystli; but this seems very unlikely. In 1200 King John undertook the protection of his aunt Emma and her lands and possessions, among which he specially mentions Ellesmere and Hales, the gifts of Henry II (Rotuli Chartarum, p. 44 a). In those places Davydd probably spent the rest of his life. He granted with his wife's consent some charters to the abbot of Pershore at the expense of the church of Hales, but before long the abbot surrendered the charters to the crown (Abbreviatio Placitorum, p. 24 a). In 1203 Davydd died. He left by his wife one son, Owain, from whom John took into his own hands Ellesmere Castle on his father's death (Rotuli de Liberate, p. 56), compensating him with other possessions in Lincolnshire (Rotuli de Finibus, p. 330) and elsewhere. In 1212 John granted Owain the three cantreds of Rhos, excluding Gannock Castle, Rhuvyniog, and Duffryn Clwyd, his father's old possessions, to be held of the crown in capite, and encouraged him to assail the already great power of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth (Rotuli Chartarum, p. 188 b, cf. Wynne, History of the Gwydir Family, p. 17, ed. 1878). But with Owain's failure the house of Davydd ab Owain Gwynedd disappears from history.
Despite his English sympathies Davydd's praises were sung by more than one Welsh bard. Gwilym Ryvel addressed two poems to him (Myvyrian Archaiology, i. 274), and the more famous Llywarch ab Llewelyn wrote a long ode to him, in which he praised him very highly. The same bard composed in his honour two pieces styled ‘Bygwth Dauyt’ and ‘Kyuarch Gwell Dauyt’ (the threatening and the gratulation of Davydd) (ib. i. 279–282). The Gwentian chronicler attributes Davydd's unpopularity to his ‘cruelty and atrocity in killing and putting out the eyes of those opposed to his will after the manner of the English’ (Gwentian Brut, s. a. 1192). Giraldus, who tells a story of Davydd's amours to illustrate the ready wit of the Welsh, mentions him with his contemporary Howel, son of Iorwerth of Caerleon, as relying equally on the Welsh and English, and thus maintaining his good faith and reputation (Opera, vi. 145).
[Brut y Tywysogion and Annales Cambriæ (Rolls Series); Gwentian Brut, Cambrian Archæological Association; Chronicles of Hoveden and Benedictus Abbas, and Diceto's Ymagines Historiarium, all edited by Bishop Stubbs in the Rolls Series; Giraldi Cambrensis Itinerarium Kambriæ in vol. vi. of the Rolls edition of his Opera; Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, vol. i. ed. 1801; Stephens's Literature of the Kymry.]
DAVYDD II (1208?–1246), prince of North Wales, was the son of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth, the greatest of the later Welsh rulers, and of his wife, Joanna, bastard daughter of King John. Llewelyn and Joanna were married at Ascensiontide 1206 (Annales de Wigornia in Annales Monastici, iv. 394). Davydd was probably born in 1207 or 1208. In May 1220 Llewelyn had an interview with Henry III at Shrewsbury, and on 5 May, as the result or in prospect of that conference, the king took Davydd under his protection, and recognised him as Llewelyn's heir (Fœdera, i. 159). This was the more necessary as open war had broken out between Llewelyn and his elder son Gruffudd, who, though probably of illegitimate birth, was not on that account disqualified from being a formidable rival of Davydd. In October 1229 Davydd visited the king at Westminster, performed homage to him, and received a grant of 40l. a year and forty librates of land (ib. i. 196). In 1230 an agreement was made for his marriage with Isabella, daughter of William de Braose [q. v.], and niece of William Marshall, earl of Pembroke. The castle of Builth was promised as her portion (An. Dunst. in An. Mon. iii. 117). But before the match came off, William de Braose was caught hiding in the chamber of the Princess Joanna, Davydd's mother, and the indignation of the Welsh magnates was only appeased by the public execution of the suspected adulterer. Yet Llewelyn at once wrote to Eva, Braose's widow, and to the Earl of Pembroke, to propose that the marriage should still take place, and it was cele-
