Cadwgan ap Bleddyn was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

.

Cadwgan was the second son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn was a Prince of the Welsh Kingdoms of Gwynedd and of Powys.- Lineage :Bleddyn was the son of Princess Angharad ferch Maredudd with her second husband Cynfyn ap Gwerstan, a Powys Lord, about whom little is now known...

 who was king of both Powys and Gwynedd

Kingdom of Gwynedd

Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...

. When Bleddyn was killed in 1075, Powys was divided between three of his sons, Cadwgan, Iorwerth

Iorwerth ap Bleddyn

Iorwerth ap Bleddyn was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales.Iorwerth was the son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn who was king of both Powys and Gwynedd. When Bleddyn was killed in 1075, Powys was divided between his three of his sons, Iorwerth, Cadwgan and Maredudd.Iorwerth, Cadwgan and Maredudd held their...

 and Maredudd

Maredudd ap Bleddyn

Maredudd ap Bleddyn was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales.Maredudd was the son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn who was king of both Powys and Gwynedd...

. Cadwgan is first heard of in 1088 when he attacked Deheubarth, forcing its king, Rhys ap Tewdwr

Rhys ap Tewdwr

Rhys ap Tewdwr was a Prince of Deheubarth in south-west Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great...

, to flee to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. However Rhys returned later the same year with a fleet from Ireland and defeated the men of Powys in a battle in which two of Cadwgan's nephews, Madog and Rhiryd, were killed.

When Rhys ap Tewdwr was killed in 1093, Cadwgan again attacked Deheubarth, but it soon became clear that it was the Normans

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 who would benefit from the death of Rhys. About this time Cadwgan married the daughter of one of the neighbouring Norman lords, Picot de Sai. In 1094 a Welsh revolt against Norman rule broke out, and Cadwgan played a part in this, defeating a Norman force at the battle of Coed Yspwys. Bleddyn was now an ally of Gruffydd ap Cynan

Gruffydd ap Cynan

Gruffydd ap Cynan was a King of Gwynedd. 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...

, king of Gwynedd, and when Earl Hugh of Chester

Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester

Hugh d'Avranches , also known as le Gros and Lupus was the first Earl of Chester and one of the great magnates of early Norman England.-Early career:...

 and Earl Hugh of Shrewsbury

Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury

Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat.-Lineage:He was the second surviving son of Roger of Montgomery, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Mabel of Bellême...

 launched an invasion in 1098 to try to recover Anglesey for Hugh of Chester, Cadwgan was with Gruffydd. A Danish fleet hired by Gruffydd was offered a higher price by the Normans and changed sides, forcing Cadwgan and Gruffydd to flee to Ireland in a skiff.

They were able to return to Wales the following year, and Cadwgan was able to reclaim part of Powys and Ceredigion

Ceredigion

Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...

, on condition of doing homage to Earl Robert of Shrewsbury

Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury

Robert de Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury , also spelled Belleme or Belesme, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, and one of the most prominent figures in the competition for the succession to England and Normandy between the sons of William the Conqueror...

. For a while Cadwgan was able to strengthen his position. Earl Robert fell out with the king in 1102 and was defeated with the assistance of Cadwgan's brother Iorwerth. Iorwerth took his other brother, Maredudd, captive and handed him over to the king. However many of the lands which Iorwerth had been promised in exchange for his help were given to Norman lords instead, and Iorwerth broke with the king. In 1103 he was arraigned before a royal tribunal and imprisoned, leaving Cadwgan as sole ruler of the parts of Powys not in Norman hands.

However in 1109 Cadwgan's son, Owain ap Cadwgan

Owain ap Cadwgan

Owain ap Cadwgan was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales. He is best known for his abduction of Nest, wife of Gerald of Windsor.Owain was the eldest son of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn, prince of part of Powys. He is first recorded in 1106, when he killed Meurig and Griffri, the sons of Trahaearn ap Caradog,...

, fell in love with Nest

Nest verch Rhys

Nest ferch Rhys was a daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth , by his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys. She is also known as "Nesta" or "Princess Nesta"....

, wife of Gerald of Pembroke and launched a daring raid on the castle of Cenarth Bychan to abduct her. Cadwgan tried to persuade his son to return Nest to her husband but failed. The justiciar

Justiciar

In medieval England and Ireland the Chief Justiciar was roughly equivalent to a modern Prime Minister as the monarch's chief minister. Similar positions existed on the Continent, particularly in Norman Italy. The term is the English form of the medieval Latin justiciarius or justitiarius In...

 of Shropshire, Richard de Beaumais promised members of other branches of the ruling house of Powys extensive lands if they would join in an attack on Cadwgan and Owain. Ceredigion was invaded and Owain fled to Ireland, while Cadwgan made his peace with the king but was allowed to hold only one border vill

Vill

Vill is a term used in English history to describe a land unit which might otherwise be described as a parish, manor or tithing.The term is used in the period immediately after the Norman conquest and into the late medieval. Land units in Domesday are frequently referred to as vills, although the...

. King Henry I of England

Henry I of England

Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...

 later allowed him to have Ceredigion back on condition of paying a fine of £100 and promising to have nothing to do with Owain in future. When his brother Iorwerth was killed by Madog ap Rhiryd in 1111, Cadwgan again briefly took over the rule of all Powys, but later the same year Cadwgan himself was also killed by Madog at Welshpool

Welshpool

Welshpool is a town in Powys, Wales, or ancient county Montgomeryshire, from the Wales-England border. The town is low-lying on the River Severn; the Welsh language name Y Trallwng literally meaning 'the marshy or sinking land'...

. Madog was able to seize some of his lands, while the remainder fell to his son Owain.