Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd

Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd or Rhys ap Gruffudd (c. 1283–1356),[1] 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.[2]

Rhys was the son of Gruffydd ap Hywel and his wife Nest, daughter of Gwrwared ap Gwilym of Cemais.[1][2] 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 and dynastic founder Ednyfed Fychan.[2] He inherited from his grandfather substantial lands around Llansadwrn, in Carmarthenshire, and held several lucrative offices in the southwest of Wales,[2] as well as in 1308 being steward of Cardigan.[1] In 1310 he raised and commanded troops for the English campaign against Scotland,[2] and in 1316 against the Welsh rebel, Llywelyn Bren, and again against Scotland in 1319.[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.[2] With their downfall, and after in August 1327 he marshalled active support from North and South Wales in a conspiracy to release the imprisoned king Edward II of England,[3] he was forced to briefly flee to Scotland.[1][2] Pardoned in February 1328,[1][4] he fled again in 1330 after supporting the failed attempt of the Earl of Kent to unseat Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as guardian of Edward III of England,[1] but he was restored later in the year when the king successfully seized power.[2] He would continue to supply and lead men for the English campaigns against Scotland through 1341, and was the predominant captain of Welsh troops, mostly archers,[5] fighting for Edward in France, culminating in the Battle of Crecy in 1346, the same year he was knighted.[2]

In addition to his sizable landholdings in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, supplemented in 1355 by additional Welsh lands inherited from his cousin, Ieuan ap Gruffydd Llwyd,[6] his wife Joan de Somerville was coheiress to properties in six English counties.[2] Their younger son Henry received his father's Welsh holdings,[7] while the eldest surviving son and heir, Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd the younger, or simply Sir Rhys Griffith, born 1325, received the English inheritance of his mother,[7] and was the first of the Griffiths of Wychnor,[2] and ancestor through that family's heiress to the 16th-century rebel Rhys ap Gruffydd. Rhys the elder died 10 May 1356, at Carmarthen,[1] and was buried there,[2] having dominated south Wales for three decades.[8]

Rhys was celebrated by Welsh poet Einion Offeiriad,[9] and memorialized in poems by his cousin Dafydd ap Gwilym, and by Iolo Goch.[1][2]