Madog was a contemporary of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth [q. v.], and is at all times found acting with the minor princes whom that great ruler controlled and occasionally drove into rebellion. He joined Llywelyn, Gwenwynwyn, and the South Welsh princes in writing to complain to Innocent III of the ecclesiastical tyranny exercised by England over Wales (Giraldus Cambrensis, De Jure et Statu Menevensis Ecclesiæ, Dist. iv.) In 1211, when John invaded Wales in order to humble Llywelyn, Madog was one of the band of princes who seized the opportunity to cast off the yoke of Gwynedd. Like the rest, he returned in 1212 to his old allegiance. His name appears in a list of Llywelyn's allies drawn up on 18 Aug. 1214 (Bridgeman, Princes of Upper Powys, document 9), and his household troops were with the Prince of Gwynedd in the South Welsh expedition of December 1215. In 1223 he was one of the princes who undertook, in case Llywelyn did not observe his promises to the king, to make good the default (Rymer, Fœdera, ed. 1739, tom. i. pt. i. p. 89). He died in 1236.
Madog was the founder of Valle Crucis (or Llan Egwestl) Abbey, the building of which began in 1200. The ‘Myvyrian Archaiology’ contains one poem in his honour by Llywarch ab Llywelyn (2nd edit. p. 209) and two by Einion Wan (pp. 232–3).
[Annales Cambriæ, Rolls edit.; Brut y Tywysogion, Oxford edit. of the Red Book of Hergest, vol. ii.; poems in the Myvyrian Archaiology.]
MADOG (fl. 1294–1295), leader of the North Welsh rebellion, is termed by Trivet ‘quemdam de genere Lewelini principis ultimi;’ Walter of Hemingburgh says he claimed to be descended ‘de sanguine principis Leulini;’ the ‘Annals of Worcester’ call him ‘Madocus ap Lewelin.’ Contemporary narratives of his rebellion only supply accounts of him, but it may safely be concluded that he was a natural son of Llywelyn, the last prince of Wales [see Llywelyn ab Gruffydd, d 1282.] The occasion of the rebellion was the heavy taxation levied in 1294 towards the king's projected expedition to Gascony. It broke out, as the result of a previous arrangement, in all parts of Wales on Michaelmas day, Madog being the leader in the north. At Carnarvon advantage was taken of the Michaelmas fair to fall upon the English suddenly; many were slain, including Roger Puleston, the sheriff of Anglesey, and the town and castle were burnt. Edward, after sending in November his brother Edmund, earl of Lancaster [q. v.], and Henry Lacy, third earl of Lincoln [q. v.], to quell the rising without much result, invaded North Wales himself. He reached the mouth of the Conway, and spent his Christmas in the town (Trivet). Owing to the division of his army, however, and the capture of his provision wagons, he was for a time reduced to great straits. On 5 March 1295 the Earl of Warwick greatly improved the position of the invaders by a night attack upon Madog's host, which had encamped on a plain between two groves. After a stubborn fight the Welsh were defeated and Madog forced to flee from the field, which henceforth was known as Maes Madog, i.e. Madog's field (Ann. Wig.) After Easter the king crossed over to Anglesey, began the building of Beaumaris Castle, and received the submission of large numbers of the men of the island. In May he travelled to South Wales. Madog still remained under arms, but his submission was not long delayed. According to some authorities (Trivet, Ann. Osen.) he was captured; the language of the ‘Annals of Worcester’ (‘Madocus ab Lewelin, ducente domino Johanne de Haveringe, venit cum sua familia ad pacem regis’) and of the ‘Annals of Dunstable’ (‘Maddoc … per dictum Johannem de Haverigge ad pacem regis venit’) rather implies that he came in voluntarily. Hemingburgh tells us that he made terms for himself by promising to deliver up his fellow-conspirator Morgan; but Morgan had already made his peace (Ann. Wig.) Madog's surrender took place on 31 July (ib.) Edward was able to meet the magnates of the realm in August with the news of the entire suppression of the rising. Of the insurgents only a certain Cynan was executed (ib.), though the rest were probably subjected to some confinement.
[Annals of Trivet (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ed. 1845; Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ed. 1849; Annales Prioratus de Wigornia, Rolls edit. 1869; Annales Monasterii de Oseneia, Rolls edit. 1869; Annales Prioratus de Dunstaplia, Rolls edit. 1866; cf. art. Edward I.]
MADOG BENFRAS (i.e. Greathead) (fl. 1350), Welsh poet, was son of Gruffydd ab Iorwerth ab Einion Goch o Sonlli ab Ieuaf ap Llywarch [ab Ieuaf?] ap Nynniaw ap Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon. He and his three brothers, called ‘Brodyr Marchwiail,’ played prominent parts in the fourteenth-century movement for the revival of Welsh poetry. Madog, according to tradition, won the chair and the birchen wreath offered for the best love song in the third of the three ‘Eisteddfods of the Renaissance.’ He was the friend of Dafydd ap Gwilym, who playfully introduces him into one of his poems as
