Prince of Wales
Buried at Conway (www site: Directory of royal genealogical data)
Known as Llewelyn The Great; he was hailed by bards as a "second Achilles". Llewelyn came close to uniting all of Wales under his overlordship. By 1203 he had reunited the Welsh kingdom of Gwynedd (prounced "Gwinith"). Later he extended his overlordship to the Welsh kingdom of Powys, the kingdom of his mother's family. He married Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John of England. In spite of this marriage King John repeatedly tried to conquer the eastern parts of Llewelyn's kingdom.
[Note: Welsh royalty did not use the title "king"; instead they used the title "prince". Therefore, in the ancient kingdoms of Wales, the title "Prince of Wales" should be understood to mean "King of Wales". Today the same title has a very different meaning.] (Ryk Brown's Family Database http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ryk%5Fbrown&id=I3113)
Llywelyn was born about 1173, the son of Iorwerth ap Owain and the grandson of Owain Gwynedd, who had been ruler of Gwynedd until his death in 1170. Llywelyn was a descendant of the senior line of Rhodri Mawr and therefore a member of the princely house of Gwynedd. He was probably born at Dolwyddelan though not in the present Dolwyddelan castle, which was built by Llywelyn himself. He may have been born in the old castle which occupied a rocky knoll on the valley floor. Little is known about his father, Iorwerth Drwyndwn, who died when Llywelyn was an infant. There is no record of Iorwerth having taken part in the power struggle between some of Owain Gwynedd's other sons following Owain's death, although he was the eldest surviving son. There is a tradition that he was disabled or disfigured in some way that excluded him from power.
By 1175, Gwynedd had been divided between two of Llywelyn's uncles. Dafydd ab Owain held the area east of the River Conwy and Rhodri ab Owain held the west. Dafydd and Rhodri were the sons of Owain by his second marriage to Cristin ferch Goronwy ab Owain. This marriage was not considered valid by the church as Cristin was Owain's first cousin, a degree of relationship which according to Canon law prohibited marriage. Giraldus Cambrensis refers to Iorwerth Drwyndwn as the only legitimate son of Owain Gwynedd. Following Iorwerth's death, Llywelyn was, at least in the eyes of the church, the legitimate claimant to the throne of Gwynedd.
Llywelyn's mother was Marared, occasionally anglicised to Margaret, daughter of Madog ap Maredudd, prince of Powys. There is evidence that, after her first husband's death, Marared married in the summer of 1197, Gwion, the nephew of Roger Powys of Whittington Castle with whom she had a son, David ap Gwion. Therefore, some maintain that Marared never married into the Corbet family of Caus Castle (near Westbury, Shropshire) and later, Moreton Corbet Castle. However, there is in existence a grant of land from Llywelyn ab Iorworth to the monastery of Wigmore, in which Llywelyn indicates his mother was a member of the house of Corbet, leaving the issue unresolved (wikipedia)