Gruffudd ap Cynan [SEP] noble family
Gruffudd ap Cynan
Gruffudd ap Cynan (c. 1055 – 1137), sometimes written as Gruffydd ap Cynan, was King of Gwynedd from 1081 until his death in 1137. In the course of a long and eventful life, he became a key figure in Welsh resistance to Norman rule, and was remembered as King of all Wales. As a descendant of Rhodri Mawr, Gruffudd ap Cynan was a senior member of the princely House of Aberffraw.
Through his mother, Gruffudd had close family connections with the Norse settlement around
Aberffraw family displaced, by the mid 11th century Gwynedd was united with the rest of Wales by the conquest of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, followed by the Norman invasions between 1067 and 1100.
After the restoration of the Aberffraw family in Gwynedd, a series of successful rulers such as Gruffudd ap Cynan and Owain Gwynedd in the late 11th and 12th centuries, and Llywelyn the Great and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in the 13th century, led to the emergence of the Principality of Wales, based on Gwynedd.
The emergence of