Gwerful Fychan was a poet during the period of the Welsh

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...

 Beirdd yr Uchelwyr during the late Middle Ages. She came from a noble family, her full name in genealogies being given as Gwerful ferch Ieuan Fychan ap Ieuan ap Hywel y Gadair ap Gruffudd ap Madog ap Rhirid Flaidd

Rhirid Flaidd

Rhirid Flaidd , according to Welsh tradition, was the son of Gwrgenau, who is supported by an obscure and doubtful pedigree going back to Cunedda Wledig, the progenitor of the House of Cunedda which had provided the kings of Gwynedd from the end of Roman Britain until 825...

, and was the heiress of the mansion of Caer-Gai, near Llanuwchllyn

Llanuwchllyn

Llanuwchllyn is a village in Gwynedd, Wales, near the southern end of Bala Lake . Its population according to the United Kingdom Census 2001 was 834., of which approximately 81% were Welsh-speaking....

, Merioneth. The name Fychan was later anglicised as Vaughan.

Gwerful was married to Tudur Penllyn

Tudur Penllyn

Tudur Penllyn was a Welsh language poet during the time of the Beirdd yr Uchelwyr, the professional poets of the late Middle Ages....

, a drover

Drover

A drover is a person who drives animals in droving. Depending on dialect, drover may be synonymous with teamster.Occupations in droving include:* Drover , a person who moves animals over long distances in Australia...

 and wool-trader but also a notable poet, and their son Ieuan

Ieuan ap Tudur Penllyn

Ieuan ap Tudur Penllyn was a Welsh poet of the late mediaeval period.Ieuan was born at Caer-Gai, near Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth and was the son of two notable poets: Tudur Penllyn and Gwerful Fychan...

 also wrote poetry which survives in a number of sources. They may also have had a daughter, Gwenllian, though her poetic abilities have been harder to prove.

No work definitely ascribed to Gwerful Fychan is known to survive, but the cywydd

Cywydd

The cywydd is one of the most important metrical forms in Welsh traditional poetry.There are a variety of forms of the cywydd, but the word on its own is generally used to refer to the cywydd deuair hirion as it is by far the most common type.The first recorded examples of the cywydd date from the...

titled Cywydd y March Glas (the Grey Horse), sometimes ascribed either to Gwerful Mechain

Gwerful Mechain

Gwerful Mechain , who lived in Mechain in Powys, is perhaps the most famous female Welsh-language poet. Little is known of her life....

 or Tudur Aled

Tudur Aled

Tudur Aled was a late medieval Welsh poet, born in Llansannan, Denbighshire.He is regarded as one of the finest poets of his period and was a master of cynghanedd....

, has been suggested as her work. Some early antiquaries confuse her with Gwerful Mechain, who was a contemporary. Her memory persisted in the area of Llanuwchllyn as late as the 20th century and a variety of traditional verses were claimed as by her.