Template:Wp-House of Dinefwr

Watchers
the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The House of Dinefwr was a Royal house of Wales and refers to the descendants of Cadell ap Rhodri, King of Seisyllwg (reign 872–909), son of the King of Gwynedd, Rhodri the Great. Their ancestor, Cunedda, was a Sub-Roman Britain warlord ​who founded the House of Gwynedd during the 5th century.

With the death of Rhodri Mawr, the Kingdom of Gwynedd passed to his eldest son Anarawd ap Rhodri. Rhodri's second son Cadell ap Rhodri, however, looked outside Gwynedd's traditional borders and took possession of the Early Medieval Kingdom of Dyfed by the late 9th century, establishing his capital at the citadel of Dinefwr Castle. Cadell ap Rhodri's descendants are designated Dinefwr after the citadel from which they would rule Dyfed.

The Dinefwr dynasty under King Hywel Dda would unite Dyfed and Seisyllwg into the Kingdom of Deheubarth in the early 10th century. The Dinefwr dynasty would rule in Deheubarth until their conquest by the Plantagenet kings in the 13th century. This branch would compete with the House of Aberffraw for supremacy and influence in Wales throughout the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, with Powys variously ruled between them. Eventually, a cadet branch of the House of Dinefwr would establish itself in Powys by the mid-11th century, designating themselves as the House of Mathrafal after the castle there, named Mathrafal Castle.

The ancestral seat of the dynasty was Dinefwr Castle, initially built by the Prince of Wales, Lord Rhys, and eventually seized during the 16th century by Henry VIII. A house was rebuilt in the Dinefwr Park, now called Newton House, and the descendants of Lord Rhys anglicized their name from Rhys to Rice. William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, became the first Baron Dynevor, an anglicization of Dinefwr.

The dynasty built, attacked and captured many castles throughout the centuries such as Cardigan Castle, Kidwelly Castle, Rhuddlan Castle, Carreg Cennen castle, Carmarthen Castle, Laugharne Castle, Drysllwyn Castle, Llandovery Castle, Swansea Castle, Dinefwr Castle, Aberystwyth Castle, Llansteffan Castle, Tenby Castle, Aberavon Castle, St Clears Castle, Aberdyfi Castle, Cilgerran Castle, Builth Castle, Nevern Castle, Painscastle, Colwyn Castle, New Radnor Castle.