Editing Hywel Dda

{{Short description|King of Gwynedd from 942 to 950}}
{{about|the Welsh king|the health board|Hywel Dda University Health Board}}
{{Use Welsh English|date=July 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name            = Hywel Dda
| succession      = King of Gwynedd, Dyfed and Powys<br>Prince of Seisyllwg and Deheubarth
| image           = Hywel_Dda,_seated,_from_Peniarth_MS_28,_folio_1v.png
| caption         = Mid-13th century depiction of Hywel Dda in a Latin copy of the [[Cyfraith Hywel|Laws of Hywel Dda]]
| reign           = 942–950
| predecessor     = [[Idwal Foel]]
| successor       = [[Iago ab Idwal]]
| birth_date      = 
| birth_place     = 
| death_date      = 950
| death_place     = 
| spouse          = Elen ferch Llywarch (893-943)
| issue           = {{plainlist|
* [[Owain ap Hywel Dda]]
* [[Rhodri ap Hywel]]
* [[Edwin ap Hywel]]
* Angharad}}
| full name       = 
| house           = [[House of Dinefwr|Dinefwr]]
| father          = [[Cadell ap Rhodri]]
| mother          =
| place of burial = 
}}

[[File:Wales 900-950 (Hywel the Good).svg|thumb|right|Map of the extent of Hywel Dda's power {{legend|#aaeeff|Deheubarth, Hywel Dda's Kingdom}}{{legend|#ffb380|Combine to form Morgannwg}}]]

'''Hywel ap Cadell''', commonly known as '''Hywel Dda''', which translates to '''Howel the Good''' in English,<ref name=DWB>{{harvnb|Williams|1959}}</ref> was a Welsh king who ruled the southern Welsh kingdom of [[Deheubarth]] and eventually came to rule most of [[Wales]]. He became the sole king of [[Seisyllwg]] in 920 and shortly thereafter established Deheubarth, and proceeded to gain control over the entire country from [[Prestatyn]] to [[Pembroke, Pembrokeshire|Pembroke]].{{sfn|Davies|1999|page=85}} As a grandson of [[Rhodri Mawr]] through his father [[Cadell ap Rhodri|Cadell]], Hywel was a member of the [[House of Dinefwr|Dinefwr]] branch of the dynasty. He was recorded as [[King of the Britons]] in the ''[[Annales Cambriæ]]'' and the ''[[Annals of Ulster]]''.

Hywel is highly esteemed among other medieval Welsh rulers.{{sfn|Davies|1999|page=86}} His name is particularly linked with the codification of traditional [[Welsh law]], which were thenceforth known as the [[Cyfraith Hywel|Laws of Hywel Dda]]. The latter part of his name (''Dda'', <small>lit.</small> "Good") refers to the fact that his laws were just and good. The historian Dafydd Jenkins sees in them compassion rather than punishment, plenty of common sense and recognition of the rights of women.{{sfn|Davies|1999|page=86}} Hywel Dda was a well-educated man even by modern standards, having a good knowledge of [[Welsh language|Welsh]], [[Latin]] and [[English language|English]].{{sfn|Davies|1999|page=86}}

The office building and original home of the [[Senedd]] is named [[Tŷ Hywel]] ("Hywel House" or "Hywel's House") in honour of Hywel Dda. The original assembly chamber, now known as Siambr Hywel ("Hywel's Chamber"), is used for educational courses and for children and young people's debates. The [[Hywel Dda University Health Board|local health board of south-west Wales]], covering an area roughly corresponding to the kingdoms of Dyfed and Seisyllwg of which Hywel was King, also bears his name.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://senedd.wales/visit/holding-an-event/ty-hywel-event-spaces/ |website=senedd.wales |title=Tŷ Hywel event spaces |date=24 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://hduhb.nhs.wales/ |website=hduhb.nhs.wales |title=Hywel Dda University Health Board}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Hywel was the son of King [[Cadell ap Rhodri]] of [[Seisyllwg]].<ref name=DWB/><ref name=geni>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Hywel-Dda-ap-Cadell-King-of-the-Britons/6000000001173860005 |website=geni.com |title=Hywel Dda ap Cadell, King of the Britons|date=2 November 2023}}</ref>{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}} He had a brother, [[Clydog ap Cadell]], who was probably the younger of the two. Hywel was later reputed to have married [[Kingdom of Dyfed|Elen ferch Llywarch]] (893-943), the supposed heiress of [[List of rulers in Wales|King]] [[Llywarch ap Hyfaidd]] of [[Kingdom of Dyfed|Dyfed]],<ref name=DWB/>{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}} which connection was subsequently used to justify his family's reign over that kingdom.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Hywel's father Cadell had been installed as King of Seisyllwg by his father, [[Rhodri Mawr]] (Rhodri the Great) of [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]], following the drowning of the last king in the traditional line, [[Gwgon]], in 872. After Gwgon's death, Rhodri, husband to the dead king's sister [[Angharad ferch Meurig|Angharad]], became steward of his kingdom.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} This gave Rhodri no standing to claim the kingship of Seisyllwg himself, but he was able to install his son Cadell as a subject king. Cadell died around 911, and his lands in Seisyllwg appear to have been divided between his two sons Hywel and Clydog.<ref name=DWB/>{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}}

== Reign ==
Hywel probably already controlled Dyfed by the time he assumed his father's lands in [[Ceredigion]]. No king is recorded after the death of Llywarch in 904, and Hywel's marriage to Llywarch's only surviving heir probably ensured that the kingdom came into his hands.{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|page=333}} Hywel and Clydog seem to have ruled Seisyllwg together following their father's death and jointly submitted to [[Edward the Elder]] of [[England in the Middle Ages|England]] in 918.{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|page=333}} However, Clydog died in 920, evidently leaving the whole realm to Hywel. Hywel soon joined Seisyllwg and Dyfed into a single realm known as [[Deheubarth]].{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|page=333}} This became the first significant event of his reign.{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|pages=333–334}}

During the year 928 Hywel made a pilgrimage to [[Rome]], becoming the first Welsh prince to undertake such a trip and return, Hywel's wife Elen (death maybe 948 or 951), the daughter of Llywarch (d. 903), and granddaughter of King [[Hyfaidd]] of the [[Kingdom of Dyfed]], died the same year.{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}}<ref name=DWB/>{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|page=334}} Upon his return he forged very close relations with [[Æthelstan]] of England. From the outset Æthelstan's intention was to secure the submission of all other kings in Britain; unusually, Hywel embraced submission to England and used it to his advantage whenever possible.{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}}{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|pages=335–336}} In 934, Hywel supported [[Æthelstan's invasion of Scotland]]. Later in his reign, he was able to leverage his close association with Æthelstan and the English crown to great effect in his ambitions within Wales.{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|page=336}}

In 942 Hywel's cousin [[Idwal Foel]], [[King of Gwynedd]],<ref name=DWB/>{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}} determined to cast off English overlordship and took up arms against the new English king, [[Edmund I|Edmund]]. Idwal and his brother Elisedd were both killed in battle in 942 against Edmund's forces.<ref name=DWB/> By normal custom Idwal's crown should have passed to [[Idwal Foel#Children|his sons]], but Hywel intervened. He sent Iago and [[Ieuaf]] into exile and established himself as ruler over Gwynedd, which also probably placed him in control of the [[Kingdom of Powys]], which was under the authority of Gwynedd. As such Hywel became king of nearly all of Wales except for [[Kingdom of Morgannwg|Morgannwg]] and [[Kingdom of Gwent|Gwent]] in the south.{{sfn|Lloyd|1912|pages=337–338}}

A single coin in Hywel's name is known. It was produced by the [[Chester]] moneyer Gillys in about 946. As there is only one, it is unlikely that it is the sole survivor of a Welsh coinage and it was probably produced as a gesture by the English to the Welsh king.{{sfn|Blunt|Stewart|Lyon|1989|p=138}}

== Legacy ==
[[File:Hywel Dda at Cardiff City Hall.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Statue of Hywel Dda at [[City Hall, Cardiff]]]]
[[File:F._65r._Dragon.jpg|thumb|right|A Welsh text of the Laws of Hywel Dda from the 14th century]]
[[File:Hywell Dda (PB02300).jpg|thumb|upright|Imaginary portrait of Hywel Dda by Hugh Williams, 1909]]

Following Hywel's death in 949 or 950, his kingdom was soon split into three. Gwynedd was reclaimed by the sons of Idwal Foel, [[Iago ab Idwal|Iago]] and [[Ieuaf]],{{sfn|Pierce|1959|p={{page needed|date=September 2022}} }} while Deheubarth was divided between Hywel's sons.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=Deborah |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/Royal_Wales/7XmvBwAAQBAJ?hl=iw&gbpv=1&pg=PA13&printsec=frontcover |title=Royal Wales |date=2010-09-30 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-0-7083-2312-0 |language=en}}</ref>

Hywel's name is associated with the laws of medieval Wales, which are commonly known as the Laws of Hywel Dda (Welsh: [[Cyfraith Hywel]]). None of the law manuscripts can be dated to Hywel's time, but Hywel's name is mentioned in the prologues to the laws, and are also known as the ''Code of Dyfed''. These describe how Hywel gathered expert lawyers and priests from each commote in Wales together in the ''White Land'' in Dyfed ({{langx|cy|[[Whitland Abbey|Tŷ Gwyn ar Daf]]}}){{efn|which is thought to have been close to [[Whitland]], [[Carmarthenshire]]}} in order to revise and codify the Laws of Wales.<ref name=DWB/>{{sfn|Tout|1891|pp=105–107}} The story in the prologues lengthens with time, with more details in the later versions of the prologue. It seems highly unlikely that this meeting actually took place, with the purpose of the prologues being to emphasise the royal and Christian origin and background to the laws, and that in the face of criticism of the laws from outside Wales especially during [[John Peckham]]'s period as [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. Nevertheless, his name continued to be associated with Welsh law which remained in active use throughout Wales until the appointed date of implementation of the [[Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542]] of King [[Henry VIII]] of England who asserted his royal descent by blood-line from [[Rhodri Mawr]] via Hywel Dda.{{sfn|Davies|1999}}

Opinions vary as to the motives for Hywel's close association with the court of Æthelstan. [[John Edward Lloyd|J. E. Lloyd]] claimed Hywel was an admirer of [[Wessex]],{{sfn|Lloyd|1912}} while [[David Peter Kirby]] suggests that it may have been the action of a pragmatist who recognised the realities of power in mid-10th century Britain.{{sfn|Kirby|1976|pp=1–13}}

A [[Welsh-language]] poem entitled ''[[Armes Prydein]]'', considered by Sir [[Ifor Williams]] to have been written in [[Deheubarth]] during Hywel's reign, called for the Welsh to join a confederation of all the non-English peoples of Britain and [[Ireland]] to fight the [[Saxons]].{{sfn|Williams|1972|p={{page needed|date=September 2022}} }} The poem may be linked to the alliance of Norse and Celtic kingdoms which challenged Æthelstan at the [[Battle of Brunanburh]] in 937. No Welsh forces joined this alliance, and this may well have been because of the influence of Hywel. On the other hand, neither did he send troops to support Æthelstan.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

== Children ==
Hywel and Elen had the following children:<ref name=geni/>
* [[Owain ap Hywel Dda|Owain]];
* [[Rhodri ap Hywel|Rhodri]];
* [[Edwin ap Hywel|Edwin]];
* Angharad.

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|NLW MS 20143A}}
* {{annotated link|Cyfraith Hywel}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last1=Blunt |first1=Christopher |last2=Stewart |first2=Ian |authorlink2=Ian Stewart, Baron Stewartby |last3=Lyon |first3=Stewart |year=1989 |title=Coinage in Tenth-Century England: From Edward the Elder to Edgar's Reform |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-19-726060-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Davies |first=John |date=1999 |title=Hanes Cymru |trans-title=History of Wales |isbn=0140125701 |publisher=[[Penguin books]]}}
* {{cite journal |last=Kirby |first=D. P. |year=1976 |title=Hywel Dda: Anglophile? |journal=Welsh Historical Review |edition=8 |pages=1–13}}
* {{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=John Edward |authorlink=John Edward Lloyd |year=1912 |title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest |publisher=[[Longman|Longmans, Green & Co.]] |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NYwNAAAAIAAJ |quote=Lloyd history of Wales |edition=2 |volume=1}}
* {{cite DWB |last=Pierce |first=Thomas Jonas |year=1959 |title=IAGO ab IDWAL FOEL (fl. 942–979), king of Gwynedd |id=s-IAGO-API-0942}}
* {{cite DNB |last=Tout |first=Thomas  Frederick |authorlink=Thomas Frederick Tout |wstitle=Howel Dda |volume=28 |page=105–107}}
* {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Ifor |authorlink=Ifor Williams |date=1972 |title=Armes Prydein: "The Prophecy of Britain", from the Book of Taliesin (Welsh – Mediaeval and Modern Welsh Series) |publisher=Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |isbn=0901282561}}
* {{cite DWB |last=Williams |first=Stephen J. |year=1959 |id=s-HYWE-DDA-0950 |title=HYWEL DDA (Hywel the Good) (died 950), king and legislator}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{EB1911 poster|Howel Dda}}
{{Wikisource|The Laws of Howel the Good}}
* {{google book |title=Chronicle of the Princes |id=CZAbAQAAIAAJ |page=20–25}}
* {{cite ODNB |ref=none |last=Thornton |first=David |title=Hywel Dda (d. 950) |year=2004 |id=13968}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.hywel-dda.co.uk/default.htm |website=hywel-dda.co.uk |title=Hywel dda centre}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/manuscripts/the-middle-ages/laws-of-hywel-dda#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-600%2C-1%2C4810%2C4091 |website=library.wales |title=Peniarth 28: a Latin text of the Laws of Hywel Dda |access-date=19 December 2021}}
* {{cite wikisource |ref=none |last=Wade-Evans |first=A. W. |authorlink=Arthur Wade-Evans |date=1909 |wslink=The Laws of Howel the Good |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}
* {{PASE|67927|Hywel 2}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[House of Aberffraw]]||||950}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Idwal Foel]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[King of the Britons]]|years=942–950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Dyfnwal ab Owain]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Idwal Foel]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of rulers of Gwynedd|King of Gwynedd]]|years=942–950}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Iago ab Idwal]]<br>[[Ieuaf ab Idwal]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Llywarch ap Hyfaidd]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of rulers of Wales#Dyfed|King of Dyfed]]|years=905–909}}
{{s-non|rows=2|reason=Kingdoms merged}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Cadell ap Rhodri]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of rulers of Wales#Seisyllwg|Prince of Seisyllwg]]|years=909}}
|-
{{s-new|reason=Created out of Dyfed and Seisyllwg}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of rulers of Wales#Deheubarth|Prince of Deheubarth]]|years=909–950}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[Owain ap Hywel Dda]]<br>[[Rhodri ap Hywel]]<br>[[Edwin ap Hywel]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Llywelyn ap Merfyn]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Kingdom of Powys#Rulers of Powys|King of Powys]]|years=942–950}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hywel Dda}}

[[Category:950 deaths]]
[[Category:10th-century Welsh monarchs]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:House of Dinefwr]]
[[Category:Medieval legislators]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Ceredigion]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Deheubarth]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Dyfed]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Gwynedd]]
[[Category:Monarchs of Powys]]