OWAIN ap CADWGAN (d. 1116), prince of Powys.
He has earned notoriety because of his abduction of Nest (q.v.) in 1109, and the murder in 1110 of a leading member of the Flemish colony in Dyfed, incidents which gained him the lasting enmity of those injured thereby; indeed he d. at the hands of a party of Flemings led by Nest's husband, Gerald of Windsor, when, in 1116, he was campaigning on behalf of the king against a fellow-prince in South Wales. Meanwhile, after two short periods of exile in Ireland, he had succeeded his father, Cadwgan ap Bleddyn (q.v.), as ‘king in Powys (1111). After the royal expedition into Wales in 1114, Henry I, who had always shown considerable patience with Owain, took the precaution of taking him to Normandy where he was knighted in 1115. He left no direct descendants.
Author:
Professor Thomas Jones Pierce, M.A., F.S.A., (1905-1964), Aberystwyth
