Editing Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (section)

=== Historical assessment ===
Llywelyn dominated Wales for more than 40 years and was one of only two Welsh rulers to be called "the Great", the other being his ancestor Rhodri the Great ([[Rhodri Mawr]]). The first person to give Llywelyn the title "the Great" seems to have been his near contemporary, the English chronicler [[Matthew Paris]].<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Matthew Paris |first=Matthew |last=Paris |title=Chronica Majora |editor=H. R. Luard |year=1880 |volume=5 |location=London |page=718}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Quote from [[Rolls Series]]{{sfn|Carr|1995}}|group=ll}}

[[John Edward Lloyd]] gave the following assessment of Llywelyn:
<blockquote>"Among the chieftains who battled against the Anglo-Norman power his place will always be high if not indeed the highest of all, for no man ever made better or more judicious use of the native force of the Welsh people for adequate national ends; his patriotic statesmanship will always entitle him to wear the proud style of Llywelyn the Great".{{sfn|Lloyd|1911|p=693}}</blockquote>

David Moore gives a different view:
<blockquote>"When Llywelyn died in 1240, his ''principatus'' of Wales rested on shaky foundations. Although he had dominated Wales, exacted unprecedented submissions and raised the status of the Prince of Gwynedd to new heights, his three major ambitions – a permanent hegemony, its recognition by the king, and its inheritance in its entirety by his heir – remained unfulfilled. His supremacy, like that of [[Gruffudd ap Llywelyn]], had been merely personal in nature, and there was no institutional framework to maintain it either during his lifetime or after his death."{{sfn|Moore|2005|p=126}}</blockquote>