Kingdom of Powys

The Kingdom of Powys was the Welsh successor state of the middle march, a petty kingdom and principality that emerged from the end of Roman rule and very roughly covered the northern two-thirds of the modern county with lands across the modern English border. Its early court stood at Pengwern by Wroxeter, the fallen Roman city, where the prince Cynddylan held against the Mercians of Penda, and later at Mathrafal in the Banwy valley. Powys kept its own dynasty while greater neighbours rose and fell: it bent to Gwynedd under Rhodri and Owain, broke free, married into the Norman march, and under Madog ap Maredudd held the Severn valley against Chester and Shrewsbury. On Madog's death in 1160 his sons divided the realm into Powys Fadog and Powys Wenwynwyn, and the united kingdom ended after some six and a half centuries, its halves living on as marcher lordships under Gwynedd's shadow and the English crown.