Gwynedd, kingdom of

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Gwynedd, kingdom of. The name was derived from the district called in Latin, Venedotia, and the kingdom was based upon Snowdonia and Anglesey, extending at its height to include territory to the east of the Conwy. It was one of the immediate post-Roman kingdoms of the 6th cent., ruled by Maelgwn (Maelgwn Gwynedd), said to be a descendant of Cunedda, who, about ad 440, moved, or was moved, with the Votadini from Strathclyde to meet a threat from the Irish. From the outset Gwynedd was one of the most significant of the Welsh kingdoms, with claims to overlordship, and pursuing an expansionary policy. Under rulers such as Rhodri Mawr (d. 878), Gruffydd ap Llywelyn (d. 1063), Owain Gwynedd (d. 1170), Llywelyn the Great (d. 1240), and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (d. 1282), much of Wales was brought under its hegemony, and titles such as ‘king of the Britons’ and ‘prince of Wales’ were employed. Under Gwynedd there was certainly a move towards statehood in Wales. Its downfall came from overambition on limited resources. Gwynedd took advantage of English divisions during the reign of Henry III to reassert itself and the treaty of Montgomery in 1267 gave it substantial territorial gains. But after the campaigns of Edward I in 1277 and 1282–3 it became part of the principality under the control of the English crown and was eliminated as a political entity, being divided by the statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 into the counties of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, and Merionethshire.