Llywelyn was probably not in fact master of all Gwynedd at this time since it was his cousin Gruffudd ap Cynan who promised homage to King John for Gwynedd in 1199.

Gruffudd was thus able to seize power in Gwynedd for the second time.

By this time, St. Werburh was regarded as the protector and patron saint of the city, after the supposed miraculous withdrawal of the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Llywelyn from a siege of the city.

Humphrey technically regained his lordship from Clare in 1270, but by this time these lands had effectively been taken over by the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, who had taken advantage of the previous decade's political chaos in England to extend his territory into the Marches.

Llywelyn is conjectured to have been born some time before 1267, as Gruffudd was dispossessed of the lordship of Senghenydd in that year by Gilbert de Clare and subsequently imprisoned in Ireland ; there is no record of him returning to Wales.

* Places and artifacts associated with Rhys ap Gruffudd from Gathering the Jewels

In 1081 Gruffudd ap Cynan, who had just won the throne of Gwynedd from Trahaearn ap Caradog at the Battle of Mynydd Carn was enticed to a meeting with the Earl of Chester and Earl of Shrewsbury and promptly seized and imprisoned, leading to the seizure of much of Gwynedd by the Normans.

Llywelyn the Great's other son, Gruffudd had been killed trying to escape from the Tower of London in 1244.

Rhodri died in 1195, and his lands west of the Conwy were taken over by Gruffudd and Maredudd while Llywelyn ruled the territories taken from Dafydd east of the Conwy.

Sir Owen Meredith Tudor ( ; c. 1400 – 2 February 1461 ) was a Welsh soldier and courtier, descended from a daughter of the Welsh prince Rhys ap Gruffudd, " Lord Rhys ".

Much of our knowledge of Gruffudd comes from this source, though allowance has to be made for the fact that it appears to have been written as dynastic propaganda for one of Gruffudd's descendants.

During his many struggles to gain the kingship of Gwynedd, Gruffudd received considerable aid from Ireland, both from the Hiberno-Norse at Dublin, but also those at Wexford, and also from Muircheartach Ua Briain.

He was joined here by a force of his supporters from Gwynedd, and he and Rhys marched north to seek Trahaearn ap Caradog and Caradog ap Gruffudd who had themselves made an alliance and been joined by Meilyr ap Rhiwallon of Powys.

Gruffudd reappeared on the scene years later, having escaped from captivity.

Gruffudd and his ally Cadwgan ap Bleddyn retreated to Anglesey, but then were forced to flee to Ireland in a skiff when a fleet he had hired from the Danish settlement in Ireland accepted a better offer from the Normans and changed sides.

The Normans were obliged to evacuate Anglesey, and the following year Gruffudd returned from Ireland to take possession again, having apparently come to an agreement with Earl Hugh of Chester.

David went on to rebuild Bangor Cathedral with a large financial contribution from Gruffudd.

Gruffudd was imprisoned by Earl Hugh in his castle at Chester, but it was Robert who took over his kingdom, holding it directly from the king.

When Robert was killed by a Welsh raiding party in 1088 Hugh took over these lands, becoming ruler of most of North Wales, but he lost Anglesey and much of the rest of Gwynedd in the Welsh revolt of 1094, led by Gruffudd ap Cynan, who had escaped from captivity.

Gruffudd ap Cynan retreated to Anglesey, but then was forced to flee to Ireland when a fleet he had hired from the Danish settlement in Ireland changed sides.

The series ran from 1998 to 2003 and starred Ioan Gruffudd in the title role.

Gruffudd started his acting career at the age of 13 in a Welsh television film called Austin ( 1986 ) and then later moved on to the Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm ( People of the Valley ) from 1987 to 1994. He also played football with the Pobol y Cwm football team Cwmderi FC alongside co-stars Hywel Emrys, Gwyn Elfyn and Ieuan Rhys.

One of these, Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, originally from Powys, displaced the Aberffraw line from Gwynedd making himself ruler there, and by 1055 was able to make himself king of most of Wales.

He conspired with his cousins Gruffudd and Maredudd and his uncle Rhodri and in the year 1194 they all united against Dafydd, defeated him at the Battle of Aberconwy and " drove him to flight and took from him all his territory except three castles ".

Another claim could come via the surviving members of the Anwyl of Tywyn Family or from any surviving male descendants of Dafydd Goch, the acknowledged Bastard son of Dafydd ap Gruffudd who avoided detection during the royal purges and continued the line.

Another myth, found in the 13th-century Ystoria Gruffudd ap Cynan, the Norwegian king Harald Finehair ( c. 850 – c. 933 ) founded Dublin and gave Waterford to his brother.

Gruffydd formed an alliance with Gwynedd, and later in 1136 the sons of Gruffudd ap Cynan, Owain Gwynedd and Cadwaladr ap Gruffydd, led an army to Ceredigion.

In 1194, with the aid of his cousins Gruffudd ap Cynan and Maredudd ap Cynan, he defeated Dafydd at the battle of Aberconwy at the mouth of the River Conwy.

Through his mother Gruffudd had close family connections with the Norse settlement around Dublin and he frequently used Ireland as a refuge and as a source of troops.

Through his mother, who appears in the list of the fair women of Ireland in the Book of Leinster, Gruffudd claimed relationships with many of the leading septs in Ireland.

Gruffudd landed on Anglesey with an Irish force, and with the assistance of troops provided by the Norman Robert of Rhuddlan first defeated and killed Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon, an ally of Trahaearn who held Llŷn, then defeated Trahaearn himself in the battle of Gwaed Erw in Meirionnydd and gained control of Gwynedd.

Gruffudd fled to Ireland but in 1081 returned and made an alliance with Rhys ap Tewdwr prince of Deheubarth.

The armies of the two confederacies met at the Battle of Mynydd Carn, with Gruffudd and Rhys victorious and Trahaearn, Caradog and Meilyr all being killed.

Gruffudd had not been king very long when he was enticed to a meeting with Hugh Earl of Chester and Hugh Earl of Shrewsbury at Rug, near Corwen.

The king had to come to terms with Gruffudd and made no further attempt to invade Gwynedd during Gruffudd's reign.

Owain and Cadwaladr in alliance with Gruffudd ap Rhys of Deheubarth gained a crushing victory over the Normans at Crug Mawr near Cardigan in 1136 and took possession of Ceredigion.

The latter part of Guffydd's reign was considered to be a " Golden Age "; according to the Life of Gruffudd ap Cynan Gwynedd was " bespangled with lime-washed churches like the stars in the firmament ".

According to the chroniclers, Nicholas Trivet, William Rishanger and others, Earl Simon had earlier made an alliance with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, whereby it was agreed that Llywelyn and Eleanor would marry.

Countess Eleanor died in Spring 1275, and shortly afterwards Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Prince of Wales, and Eleanor de Montfort married by proxy, ( per nuncios ) per verba de presenti ( Canon law endorsed a marital bond that was made in this way, with the full consent of both of the individuals, before witnesses ).

Nevertheless, Goronwy ap Heilin had committed himself to the struggle and died in rebellion, alongside the disinherited princes who stood with Dafydd ap Gruffudd in the last springtime of the principality of Wales, diehards who knew that theirs was not the heroism of a new beginning but the ultimate stand of the very last cohort clutching the figment of the political order that they had once been privileged to know.

From his base in Pembrokeshire he was a mainstay of the English campaigns against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and later Dafydd ap Gruffudd ; in the war of 1282 – 3 that led to the conquest of Wales he negotiated the surrender of one of Dafydd's last remaining castles, Castell-y-Bere, with its custodian, Cynfrig ap Madog.