Kingdom of Gwynedd

Gwynedd was the Welsh kingdom of the northwest, anchored on Anglesey and the mountain cantrefs, whose rulers again and again rose to speak for all the Britons. Tradition credits Cunedda's sons, come down from Manaw Gododdin in the fifth century, with winning the lands between the Dee and the Teifi. The court sat at Aberffraw on Anglesey, and its house gave Wales its measure of kingship. Gruffudd ap Llywelyn held all Wales as king from 1055 to 1063, until a Saxon invasion shattered his realm on the eve of the Norman coming. The Normans pressed hard, but Gruffudd ap Cynan restored the house of Aberffraw, and his heirs grew until Llywelyn the Great could proclaim the Principality of Wales before the Welsh princes at Aberdyfi in 1216. His grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd bought peace by the Treaty of Aberconwy in 1277, yet the settlement promised that Welsh rule would die with him. He fell in 1282, and Edward the First completed the conquest in 1283, closing a kingdom of eight hundred years.