Anarawd ap Rhodri
Encyclopedia
Anarawd ap Rhodri was a King of 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...

, also referred to as "King of the Britons
King of the Britons
The Britons or Brythons were the Celtic-speaking people of what is now England, Wales and southern Scotland, whose ethnic identity is today maintained by the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons...

" by the Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae
Annales Cambriae, or The Annals of Wales, is the name given to a complex of Cambro-Latin chronicles deriving ultimately from a text compiled from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales, not later than the 10th century...

.

Anarawd's father Rhodri the Great
Rhodri the Great
Rhodri the Great was King of Gwynedd from 844 until his death. He was the first Welsh ruler to be called 'Great', and the first to rule most of present-day Wales...

 had eventually become ruler of most of 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...

, but on his death in 878 his kingdom was shared out between his sons, with Anarawd inheriting the throne of Gwynedd. Anarawd and his brothers Cadell and Merfyn are recorded as cooperating closely against the rulers of the remaining lesser kingdoms of Wales. Earl Aethelred of Mercia
Earl Aethelred of Mercia
Ealdorman Æthelred was ruler of Mercia from about 883, when he submitted to King Alfred of Wessex. He married Alfred's daughter Æthelfleda between 882 and 887, and his title was "Lord of the Mercians". Although he had many attributes of a king, he was subject to the power of his close ally Wessex...

 invaded Gwynedd in 881, but Anarawd was able to defeat him with much slaughter in a battle at the mouth of the River Conwy
River Conwy
The River Conwy is a river in north Wales. From its source to its discharge in Conwy Bay it is a little over long. "Conwy" is sometimes Anglicized as "Conway."...

, hailed in the annals as "God's vengeance for Rhodri", Rhodri having been killed in battle against the Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...

ns.

Anarawd then made an alliance with the Danish king of York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

 in an attempt to guard himself against further Mercian attacks. When this alliance proved unsatisfactory, he came to an agreement with Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

 of Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...

, visiting Alfred at his court. In exchange for Alfred's protection Anarawd recognised the supremacy of Alfred. This was the first time a ruler of Gwynedd had accepted the supremacy of an English king, and formed the basis for the homage which was demanded by the English crown from then on.

In 894 Anarawd was able to repel a raid by a Danish host on North Wales, and the following year raided 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...

 and Ystrad Tywi in southern Wales. He is reported as having some English troops under his command for these raids. In 902 an attack on Ynys Môn (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...

) by some of the Danes of Dublin under Ingimund was repulsed. Anarawd died in 916 and was succeeded by his son Idwal Foel
Idwal Foel
Idwal Foel ap Anarawd was a King of Gwynedd, referred to as King of the Britons by William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Regum Anglorum. William spells his name as Judwalum in the original Latin ; the Annales Cambriae spell it Iudgual.Idwal inherited the throne of Gwynedd on the death of his...

 (Idwal the Bald).

Anarawd would establish the princely House of Aberffraw
House of Aberffraw
The House of Aberffraw is a historiographical and genealogical term historians use to illustrate the clear line of succession from Rhodri the Great of Wales through his eldest son Anarawd....

, taking the name from his principal seat of government on Ynys Môn. His descendants would rule Gwynedd until the Edwardian conquest of the late 13th century.

Further reading

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