Ieuaf

Ieuaf ab Idwal Foel
A fanciful illustration of Hywel Dda from the Historie of Cambria (1584)1
King of Gwynedd
Reign	c. 950-969
Predecessor	Hywel Dda
Died	c. 988
Father	Idwal Foel

Ieuaf (Welsh: "the younger"), perhaps a nickname representing Idwal ap Idwal (died 988) to distinguish him from his father Idwal Foel, was joint king of Gwynedd in northern Wales from 950 to 969 with his brother Iago ab Idwal.² He possibly also ruled Powys for some time.³⁴

Ieuaf was a son of King Idwal Foel (Idwal the Bald), who had become King of Gwynedd from 916⁵⁴ on the death of his father Anarawd ap Rhodri. Ieuaf's paternal great grandparents were Rhodri Mawr, King of Gwynedd and Angharad ferch Meurig of Ceredigion.⁵ Upon his father Idwal's death in battle against the Anglo-Saxons in 942, he and his brother Iago ab Idwal were driven from their kingdom by their uncle Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, who took the crown for himself.⁶

On Hywel's death in 950, Ieuaf and Iago were able to drive out Hywel's sons, their cousins, at the Battle of Carno and reclaim the kingdom. However, fighting continued, with the brothers raiding as far south as Dyfed in 952 and their cousins raiding as far north as the Conwy valley in 954. The southern princes were finally defeated at the Battle of Llanrwst and chased back to Ceredigion.⁶

Having won, the brothers then began to quarrel among themselves. Iago took Ieuaf prisoner in 969, and Ieuaf played no further role in Gwynedd. Some sources indicated Ieuaf was imprisoned, (historian John Edward Lloyd stated that Ieuaf remained in captivity until his death in 988),⁶ others that he was executed on his brother's orders.² Which ever was the case, Iago ruled for the best part of another decade with a brief hiatus in 974 when his nephew, Ieuaf's son and heir Hywel ab Ieuaf invaded and deposed him for a time.⁴ Hywel ap Ieuaf fully usurped his uncle in 979 and ruled as King of Gwynedd until his death in 985, when his brother Cadwallon ab Ieuaf briefly took his place until his death the following year.⁷

Ieuaf spent the final decades of his life removed from power, either in captivity or killed shortly after his imprisonment. A recent hypothesis suggests that he fled to the modern-day Peak District (where displaced members of the Idwal dynasty are believed to have sought refuge during periods of internal turmoil), based on later genealogical fragments and Royal family trees with unlabelled members uncovered in hill settlements beyond Gwynedd's eastern frontier.⁸ In some cases, individual members or even entire branches of the family tree were apparently removed deliberately, possibly to protect them.

• Hywel ap Ieuaf
• Cadwallon ab Ieuaf
• Meurig ap Ieuaf