Rhys Mechyll

Arms of House of Dinefwr: Gules, a lion rampant or within a bordure engrailled or. These arms were inherited by the Talbot family, later Earls of Shrewsbury

Rhys Mechyll (died 1244) was a Welsh prince of the House of Dinefwr, ruler of part of the kingdom of Deheubarth in southern Wales from 1234 to 1244. He was a son of Rhys Gryg (died 1234) ("Rhys the Hoarse"), son of Rhys ap Gruffydd (1132–1197),^[1] "The Lord Rhys", ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth.

Marriage

He married Matilda de Braose (died 1248) who betrayed the dynasty's chief castle of Carreg Cennen to the Anglo-Normans in 1248, against the interests of her son Rhys. A Welsh chronicle, the Brut y Tywysogyon, records under the year 1248: "Rhys Fychan ap Rhys Mechyll regained the castle of Carreg Cennen, which his mother had treacherously placed in the power of the French, out of enmity for her son."^[2]

Progeny

He had a son Rhys Fychan (i.e. "The Younger") ap Rhys Mechyll,^[1] and a daughter Gwenllian, his eventual heiress who married Gilbert Talbot (died 1274), grandfather of Gilbert Talbot, 1st Baron Talbot (died 1345/6),^[3] to whom passed the ancient armorials of the House of Dinefwr, assumed as arms of alliance to a great princess in place of his own paternal arms.^[4]

Notes

• Walker, David. Medieval Wales, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 98. ISBN 978-0-521-31153-3

References

1. Walker, 1990, p. 98
2. Jones, Thomas (translated by). Brut y Tywysogyon, Cardiff, 1973, p. 243
3. Cokayne, G.E., rev. & ed. Geoffrey H. White (1953). The Complete Peerage, Vol. 12 pt 1. London: The St. Catherine Press Ltd. pp. 609/10.
4. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th. ed., vol. 11, p. 691, Talbot arms of alliance