Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd

Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd (d. 1356), also known as 'Syr Rhys', Rhys Hen ('the elder') or Rhys Griffith, was the wealthiest nobleman in 14th-century Wales. He was the most prominent of the native supporters of the English kings during this early period of English settlement in Wales.^[1]

Rhys was the son of Gruffydd ap Hywel and his wife Nest, daughter of Gwrwared ap Gwilym of Cemais.^[1] His father was first cousin of Welsh rebel Sir Gruffydd Llwyd, while on his mother's side he was related to poet Dafydd ap Gwilym. Rhys was great-great-grandson of thirteenth-century nobleman Ednyfed Fychan.^[1] He inherited from his grandfather substantial lands around Llansadwrn, in Carmarthenshire, and held several lucrative offices in the southwest of Wales, as well as in 1309 being steward of Cardigan.^[1] In 1310 he raised and commanded troops for the English campaign against Scotland.^[1]

As supporter of The Elder Despenser and his son Hugh Despenser the Younger, he rose to prominence, being named sheriff of Carmarthen, deputy to the royal justice in South Wales, and receiving grants and leases to several properties as reward for his support.^[1] With their downfall he was forced to briefly flee to Scotland in 1327, and fled again in 1330 after a failed attempt to unseat the guardian of Edward III of England, but he was restored later in the year when Edward successfully seized power.^[1] He would continue to supply and lead men for the English campaigns against Scotland through 1341, and was the predominant captain of Welsh troops fighting for Edward in France, culminating in the Battle of Crecy in 1346, the same year he was knighted.^[1]

To his sizable landholdings in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion Rhys added those to which his wife Joan de Somerville was heiress, in six English counties.^[1] Their eldest surviving son and heir, Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd the younger, or simply Sir Rhys Griffith, born 1325, was the first of the Griffiths of Wychnor, named for one of his mother's holdings that descended to him,^[1] and ancestor through that family's heiress to the 16th-century rebel Rhys ap Gruffydd. Rhys the elder died 10 May 1356, at Carmarthen, and was buried there.^[1]

Rhys would appear in the verse of his cousin Dafydd ap Gwilym, and was subject of a poem by Iolo Goch.^[1]

References[]

Sources[]

Thomas Jones Pierce, "RHYS ap GRUFFYDD or ‘Syr RHYS’ (died 1356), nobleman", Dictionary of Welsh Biography, 1959