Ragnvald Godredsson - Welsh Connections

Welsh Connections

From its earliest years, the Crovan dynasty forged alliances with the northern Welsh rulers of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Guðrøðr "Crovan", the dynasty's eponymous founder, is known to have aided Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd (d. 1137) in about 1094, as the Historia Gruffud Vab Kenan, a 12th century account of this Welsh king, records that Guðrøðr supported him with sixty ships in an attack on the English in Gwynedd. In fact, this source indicates that Guðrøðr and Gruffudd were likely kinsmen, as it states that Gruffudd's mother was descended from Óláfr kváran, King of Dublin, King of Northumbria (d. 981), a significant Norse-Gaelic monarch who may well have been Guðrøðr's ancestor. Rögnvaldr also partook in military actions in the north of Wales, during a time of vicious warring between the descendants of Owain ap Gruffydd, King of Gwynedd (d. 1170). The late 13th century Welsh chronicle Brut y Tywysogyon indicates that he militarily supported Rhodri ab Owain (d. 1195), in the latter's successful re-acquisition of Anglesey in 1193. Furthermore, another Welsh text, Gwrtheyrn Gwrtheneu to King John, refers to the year 1193 as haf y Gwyddyl ("the summer of the Gael"), which likely refers to the participation of Rögnvaldr and his troops.

Rögnvaldr and Rhodri were also bound together by marriage. A papal letter, dated 1199, indicates that an unnamed daughter of Rögnvaldr was betrothed to Rhodri. It is uncertain whether the couple were married before or after the episode of 1193, although Rögnvaldr's support of Rhodri in 1193 is almost certainly related to the marriage. Rhodri died in 1195, and the same papal letter states that his widow was arranged to marry Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd (d. 1240). Although papal approval of the marriage was granted in 1203, it was reversed in 1205 on a technicality; by then Llywelyn was already married, in a much more politically advantageous match, to Joan (d. 1237), an illegitimate daughter of his extremely powerful neighbour, John, King of England (d. 1216).

There may be further evidence of Rögnvaldr's Welsh connections. According to several Welsh genealogical tracts, the mother of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (d. 1282) was an otherwise unknown daughter of Rögnvaldr named Rhanullt (Old Norse Ragnhildr). Be that as it may, recent research into Llywelyn's parentage has uncovered that contemporary sources reveal that Llywelyn's mother was another woman named Senana, and that the later claims linking the Rögnvaldr cannot be relied upon. In yet another Welsh genealogy, one compiled by the herald and poet Lewys Dwnn (d. in or after 1616), Rögnvaldr is stated have had an otherwise unknown son named Hywel. Although such late genealogical sources are generally considered to be suspect, the earlier evidence of Rögnvaldr's Welsh familial and military alliances may indicate that he had a Welsh wife or concubine. Rögnvaldr may also have been partly responsible for the Welsh translation of mediaeval texts dealing with Charlemagne and Roland, since Reinallt Vrenhin yr Ynyssoed, meaning "Rögnvaldr, King of the Isles", appears in the colophon of several surviving Welsh forms of these texts.