Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the first born son of Llywelyn the Great

Llywelyn the Great

Llywelyn the Great , full name Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, was a Prince of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually de facto ruler over most of Wales...

 ("Llywelyn Fawr"). His mother Tangwystl probably died in childbirth.

Hostage

As a boy, Gruffydd was one of the hostages taken by King John of England

John of England

John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

 as a pledge for his father's continued good faith. On his father's death in 1240 he would under Welsh law

Welsh law

Welsh law was the system of law practised in Wales before the 16th century. According to tradition it was first codified by Hywel Dda during the period between 942 and 950 when he was king of most of Wales; as such it is usually called Cyfraith Hywel, the Law of Hywel, in Welsh...

 have been entitled to consideration as his father's successor. Llywelyn however had excluded him from the succession and had declared his son by his wife Joan

Joan, Lady of Wales

Joan, Princess of Wales and Lady of Snowdon was the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales and Gwynedd and effective ruler of most of Wales.-Early life:...

, Dafydd

Dafydd ap Llywelyn

Dafydd ap Llywelyn was Prince of Gwynedd from 1240 to 1246. He was for a time recognised as Prince of Wales.- Descent :...

, to be heir to the kingdom. Llywelyn went to considerable lengths to strengthen Dafydd's position, probably aware that there would be considerable Welsh support for Gruffydd against the half-English Dafydd.

Imprisonment

Gruffydd was held a prisoner by his brother Dafydd when the latter took over Gwynedd. Following a successful invasion of the Welsh borders by King Henry III of England

Henry III of England

Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...

 in 1241, Dafydd was obliged to hand over Gruffydd into the king's custody whence he was taken to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and imprisoned in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

. Gruffydd's wife, Senena (possibly a daughter of Caradoc ap Thomas of Anglesey

Anglesey

Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

), agreed to pay Henry 600 marks for the release of her husband and their eldest son, Owain, and to hand over her two youngest sons, Dafydd and Rhodri, to the king as hostages to ensure that she kept her part of the bargain. Henry did not keep his part however, and kept Gruffydd and his son imprisoned as "guests" because this continued to give him the possibility of using Gruffydd as a weapon against his brother.

Death

However, Gruffydd died while attempting to escape from the Tower in 1244. He is said to have used an improvised rope made from sheets and cloths to lower himself from his window, but as he was a heavy man the rope broke and he fell to his death. His body was discovered by the Yeoman of the Guard the next morning at the foot of the White Tower

White Tower

-Geography and history:* White Tower of Thessaloniki, a monument and museum in Greece* White Tower of Tehran, Iran* White Tower of Tsarskoye Selo, landscape architecture element in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia...

 where he had fallen some ninety feet. The window from which he made his descent is on the south side of the Tower on the top floor. It was bricked up afterwards and can still be seen today.

In 1248 the abbots of Strata Florida

Strata Florida Abbey

Strata Florida Abbey Flowers. Ystrad corrupts into Strata, while Fflur is the name of the nearby river. After the region around St. David's was firmly occupied by the Norman Marcher lordship of Pembroke by the early 12th century, with St...

 and Aberconwy

Aberconwy Abbey

Aberconwy Abbey was a Cistercian foundation at Conwy, later transferred to Maenan near Llanrwst and in the 13th century was the most important abbey in North Wales....

 arranged for the return of his body to Wales where he was buried at Aberconwy with his father.

Succession

After his death Gruffydd's four sons—Owain, Llywelyn

Llywelyn the Last

Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf , sometimes rendered as Llywelyn II, was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England....

, Dafydd and Rhodri

Rhodri ap Gruffudd

Rhodri ap Gruffudd was the third or fourth son of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn Fawr. He was the younger brother of both Llywelyn the Last of Gwynedd, Prince of Wales) and of Owain Goch ap Gruffydd...

—would come into their own, and after much fraternal discord, Llywelyn ended up ruling most of Wales. He also had two daughters, Gwladus and Margred.