MADOC AP BLEDDYN/BLETHYN
b.c. 1060, d. 1088
B1 in “Welsh Madoc Dynasties: Kingdom of Powys”
Also
B1 in “The Prince Madocs of Acton, Lancashire”
Also
B1 in “The Prince Madocs of Sutton-Madoc, Shropshire”
Gwynedd - top left Powys - top right |
This Prince Madoc was the
earliest of all known Prince Madocs, born about 1060 in Wales. He was a son of Bleddyn/Blethyn who ruled
the kingdom of Gwynedd in northwest Wales, and upon his brother’s death in
1070, also Powys in northeast Wales.
Two historians said of Bleddyn,
that he was
…the most
lovable and the most merciful of all kings….he was civil to his relatives,
generous to the poor,
merciful to
pilgrims and orphans and widows and a defender of the weak.
…the mildest
and most clement of kings….did injury to none, save when insulted….openhanded
to all, terrible in war, but in peace beloved.
Madoc’s brother, Iorwerth,
became prince of one-third of Powys in Northeast Wales. Another brother, Maredudd, became Prince of
one third and eventually all of the kingdom of Powys. Many descendants ended up in northwest England along the Welsh border.
Norman William the Conqueror’s
Domesday Book of 1086 lists “the tenant of nearby Brogynton” as Madoc, possibly
the son of Bleyddn ap Cynfyn, usually called the Prince of Powys. Today
there is a Broughton in Lancashire County and another Broughton in Cheshire
County.
In the papers of the Hulton
family baronets of Hulton Park, at the Lancashire record office, is stated that
they were faithful vassals of Robert Banastre expelled from Wales in 1167. “Certainly Iorwerth and Madoc, sons of
Bleiddyn, held lands in Hulton before 1200.
Prince
Madoc was killed in battle at an early age, along with his brother Rhiryd in
1088, thirteen years after his father’s death.
Housed
in the Lovell Family papers, Cole Park, Wiltshire Record Office, is a parchment
12’ 5” long of Thomas Vaughan in 1653 that goes back to Blethin ap Kynvin,
prince of Powis.