The native Welsh record of the year. Under 1200 it reports that Llywelyn ab Iorwerth's cousin Gruffudd ap Cynan died a monk at Aberconwy, leaving Llywelyn master of Gwynedd, and that Maelgwn ap Rhys sold Cardigan castle, 'the lock and stay of all Wales', to King John for a worthless price. Around it stand Gwenwynwyn of Powys after his defeat at Painscastle in 1198, the feuding sons of the Lord Rhys in Deheubarth, and the deaths of churchmen. Terse, partisan for Strata Florida's patrons, and the best there is for the Welsh princes.
About this source
- Title
- Brut y Tywysogion
- Author
- Anonymous (Welsh translation of a lost Latin chronicle kept at Strata Florida)
- Written
- Latin original to about 1282, compiled from contemporary annals; Welsh versions about 1300 and later
- Language
- Middle Welsh
- Covers
- 682 to 1282
- Kind
- Chronicle
The Rolls Series text is the Red Book version and its translation is dated; Thomas Jones's editions are standard and under copyright. The chronicle's years around 1200 are sometimes a year out against English records.
Where to read it
Editions
- J. Williams ab Ithel (ed. and trans.), Brut y Tywysogion, or the Chronicle of the Princes, Rolls Series 17 (1860), Welsh with English
- T. Jones (ed. and trans.), Brut y Tywysogyon, Peniarth MS 20 version (1952) and Red Book of Hergest version (1955), not free (not freely online)