Gruffydd Fychan ap Iorwerth

Sir Gruffydd Fychan ap Iorwerth Goch (c. 1150 – 1221) was a medieval Welsh Knight and Marcher Lord.^[1]

Gruffydd Fychan ap Iorwerth
Born	c. 1150
Died	1221

His father was a minor Welsh prince named Iorwerth Goch ap Maredudd, Lord of Mochnant, of the Royal House of Mathrafal.

His uncle was the last Prince of Powys, Madog ap Maredudd.

His great-grandfather was King Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, founder of Mathrafal, and King of both Powys and Gwynedd.

He was known by the epithet "y Marchog Gwyllt o Gae Hywel" ('the Wild Knight of Cae Howell'),^[2] Cae Howell being a manor near Kinnerley, Shropshire.^[3][4][5]

He was one of the earliest Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, rivals of the Knight Templars, and also held the title of Knight of Rhodes.^[6][7]

This was during the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor. Barbarossa visited Jerusalem in 1148 and was involved in the invasion of Damascus.^[8]

The Knights Hospitaller would later be under Emperor Barbarossa's protection in 1185.^[9]

Gruffydd succeeded to his father's estates in Kinnerley, and resided at Cae Howel in the parish of Kunaston.^[10]

Family

Gruffydd was the eldest son of Prince Iorwerth Goch and Maud de Manly.

He married first, Matilda ferch Ieuan, with whom he had the son Gruffydd Fychan ap Gruffydd (1190) of Cae Howell. This son was the first to hold the surname "Kynaston".

His descendants, the Kynaston baronets, included Sir Roger Kynaston, who married Elizabeth Grey of Powis Castle, the great-granddaughter of King Henry IV of England, and Sir Francis Kynaston, a grandson of Marshal Nicholas Bagenal.^[11]

Kynaston's uncles included the famous Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, and Sir Henry Bagenal, whose wife was the granddaughter of the Earl of Rutland, Thomas Manners of Belvoir Castle, and the cousin of Sir George Manners of Haddon Hall.

He married secondly, Matilda le Strange (1170), daughter of Guy le Strange, with whom he had the children Hywel ap Gruffydd and Sir Madog ap Gruffydd of Sutton Maddock, Shropshire.^[12]