Owain ap Hywel was king of Deheubarth in south 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...

 and probably also controlled Powys.

Owain was the son of Hywel Dda

Hywel Dda

Hywel Dda , was the well-thought-of king of Deheubarth in south-west Wales, who eventually came to rule Wales from Prestatyn to Pembroke. As a descendant of Rhodri Mawr, through his father Cadell, Hywel was a member of the Dinefwr branch of the dynasty and is also named Hywel ap Cadell...

, originally king of Deheubarth but by the end of his life king of most of Wales. On Hywel's death in 950 Deheubarth was shared between Owain and his two brothers, Rhodri

Rhodri ap Hywel

Rhodri ap Hywel was a king of Deheubarth in south Wales, and son of Hywel Dda.On Hywel's death in 950 Deheubarth was shared between Rhodri and his two brothers, Edwin and Owain...

 and Edwin

Edwin ap Hywel

Edwin ap Hywel was a king of Deheubarth in south Wales, and son of Hywel Dda.On Hywel's death in 950 Deheubarth was shared between Edwin and his two brothers, Rhodri and Owain...

. The sons of Hywel were not able to keep hold 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...

, which was reclaimed for the traditional dynasty of Aberffraw

Aberffraw

Aberffraw is a small village and community on the south west coast of the Isle of Anglesey , in Wales, by the west bank of the River Ffraw, at . The UK postcode begins LL63. Access by road is by way of the A4080 and the nearest rail station is Bodorgan. In the early Middle Ages Aberffraw was the...

 by Iago ap Idwal and Ieuaf ap Idwal, the sons of 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...

.

In 952 Iago and Ieuaf invaded the south, penetrating as far as Dyfed

Dyfed

Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe...

. The sons of Hywel retaliated by invading the north in 954, reaching as far north as the Conwy valley before being defeated in a battle at Llanrwst

Llanrwst

Llanrwst is a small town and community on the A470 road and the River Conwy in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It takes its name from the 5th century to 6th century Saint Grwst, and the original parish church in Cae Llan was replaced by the 12th-century church....

 and being obliged to retreat to 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...

.

Rhodri died in 953 and Edwin in 954, leaving Owain to rule Deheubarth alone. Owain did not again try to reclaim Gwynedd, but instead he and his son Einon turned eastwards to attack the kingdom of Morgannwg (modern Glamorgan

Glamorgan

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

) in 960, 970 and 977. Owain was now aging, and it appears that Einon took over the rule of the kingdom on behalf of his father. On a further raid on the east in 984, Einon was killed by the noblemen of Gwent.

Following Einon's death, Owain's second son, Maredudd

Maredudd ab Owain

Maredudd ab Owain was a King of Deheubarth, and through conquest also of Gwynedd and Powys, kingdoms in medieval Wales.Maredudd was the son of Owain ap Hywel and the grandson of Hywel Dda. His father was king of Deheubarth before him. As Owain grew too old to lead in battle his son Maredudd took...

, took over the leadership in war, and in 986 did what his father had failed to do by seizing the throne of Gwynedd, ousting Ieuaf's son Cadwallon ab Ieuaf

Cadwallon ab Ieuaf

Cadwallon ap Ieuaf was a King of Gwynedd.Cadwallon was the son of Ieuaf ab Idwal and succeeded to the throne of Gwynedd on the death of his brother Hywel ab Ieuaf in 985. He only reigned for a year, for in 986 Maredudd ab Owain of Deheubarth invaded Gwynedd, slew Cadwallon and annexed his...

. The following year Owain died and Maredudd became king of Deheubarth as well as Gwynedd.

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...

were compiled at Owain's instigation.