Notes |
- [dunbar_tree.FTW]
Known as "the Freckled." "The Earliest English Kings," D. P. Kirby (London: outledge, 1992), p. 212: "The advent to royal power in 825 of Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad, a Powys prince with possible Manx connections, whose father had married a daughter of
Cynan ap Rhodri, king of Gwynedd, established the second dynasty of Gwynedd. Merfyn's marriage to Nest, sister of Cyngen ap
Cadell, king of Powys, strenthened the Powysian associations of this second dynasty...." http://www.britannia.com/bios/ebk/merfynrd.html offers (2001):
"Merfyn Frych, King of Gwynedd & Ynys Manaw (c.780-844)(Welsh-Merfyn, Latin-Marbinus, English-Mervin) Merfyn the Freckled was the son of King Guriat of Ynys Manaw, heir to the lost Kingdom of South Rheged. His mother was Esyllt ferch Cynan, the
heiress of Gwynedd, and after the death of her uncle in AD 825, the throne was secured for Merfyn. He crossed from Ynys Manaw (Isle of Man), where he was almost certainly already King, to bring a new stability as well as a new dynasty to
Gwynedd after many years of Civil War. He reigned for 19 years and, sadly, though Gwynedd gained from his rule, an absentee monarch left Manaw open to invasion. The Hiberno-Viking, Godred mac Fergus established himself there in 836 and the country ws
never recovered. Merfyn died in AD 844."
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