Iorwerth ab Owain Wan, prince in Wales, lord of Caerleon

Please see Darrell Wolcott: The Herbert Family Pedigree; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id40.html. (Steven Ferry, April 21, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Two Families Headed by a Rhydderch ap Iestyn; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id212.html. (Steven Ferry, July 18, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: The Children of Lord Rhys; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id187.html. (Steven Ferry, September 15, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Maredudd Gethin ap Lord Rhys; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id213.html. (Steven Ferry, September 17, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: The 'Next Heir' of Morgan of Caerleon; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id214.html. (Steven Ferry, September 18, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Ifor Bach, Lord of Senghenydd; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id316.html (Steven Ferry, August 4, 2023.)

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/48555

Iorwerth ab Owain (d. 1175x84), prince in Wales, lord of Caerleon, succeeded the king, his elder brother Morgan ab Owain, on Morgan's violent death in 1158. There is no indication that Iorwerth ever used the royal style, derived from their grandfather, Caradog ap Gruffudd (d. 1081), one-time dominant king of Gwlad Morgan and client of William I. Iorwerth's first appearance is in 1136 when Gerald of Wales names him as the man responsible for the killing of Richard de Clare of Ceredigion in the pass of Grwyne Fawr between Abergavenny and Talgarth. In the subsequent conquest of Upper Gwent and Llefennydd by Morgan ab Owain, Iorwerth was closely associated with his brother. They issued joint charters in Stephen's reign, and even appear to have possessed a joint seal (although no impression of it survives). Although King Morgan left at least two sons, it was his brother who succeeded him in 1158. This was quite clearly because Iorwerth had occupied the position of heir designate (edling) during his brother's lifetime.

Iorwerth (styled on one occasion of ‘Gwynllŵg’) presided over the decline of his family's fortunes in Gwent in the 1160s and 1170s. Before 1169 the castle of Usk (taken by his brother c.1136–7) was taken back by Earl Richard de Clare (Strongbow), lord of Chepstow. Iorwerth's failure to come to terms with Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth added to his problems. In 1171, on his way into the west, Henry II was persuaded by Rhys to join with him to oust Iorwerth from his castle of Caerleon and drive him back to his stronghold of Machen in Gwynllŵg. Iorwerth, his sons, and Morgan ap Seisyll, his nephew, retaliated by devastating the region of Llefennydd. Warfare continued into 1172, when Iorwerth's elder son, Owain, was assassinated by the earl of Gloucester's soldiers during a temporary truce. On 21 July 1173 Iorwerth retook Caerleon after a three-day siege and by mid-August had subdued all of lower Gwent, except the castles. He and his son Hywel [see below] appear to have maintained themselves by force in the area until early 1175, when family unity collapsed after Hywel blinded and castrated Owain Pen-Carn, his uncle (his father's younger brother). Iorwerth's nephew, Morgan ap Morgan ab Owain, seems always to have supported the English rather than his uncle. Caerleon Castle was once more lost.

Late in June 1175 Iorwerth came to an agreement with the Lord Rhys, with whose support he regained Caerleon from King Henry. The recovery of Caerleon may also have had something to do with the sexual liaison between the king and Iorwerth's daughter, Nest Bloet, with whom the king had an illegitimate son, Morgan (surnamed Bloet, from his being brought up in the family of Nest's husband, Ralph Bloet (d. 1199) of Silchester). The date of Iorwerth's death is unknown, but he had been succeeded by his son Hywel ab Iorwerth of Caerleon by 1184. In Stephen's reign, probably before 1148, Iorwerth married Angharad, daughter of Bishop Uthred of Llandaff. With her he had several known sons, Owain (killed in 1172), Hywel, his heir, and a younger pair, Gruffudd and Cadwallon, who appear at the court of King John at St Briavels in 1207, and also perhaps another son, Morgan. Iorwerth probably founded Llantarnam Abbey in Gwent and may have been buried there.

http://welshleigh.org/genealogy/prichardancestry/prichardhistorical...

The death of CARADOG put an end to effective Welsh leadership in south east Wales, and the Normans took over much of the fertile lowlands, though CARADOG’s son OWAIN WAN (the weak) did retain some influence. OWAIN’s eldest son Morgan was recognized as the Lord of Caerleon (west Monmouthshire) by king Henry II, and after his death in 1158 he was succeeded by his brother IORWERTH ab OWAIN. For some reason Henry dispossessed him in 1171, but two years later IORWERTH and his son HYWEL seized Caerleon and other castles in Monmouthshire. Though they lost them soon afterwards, their friendship with the LORD RHYS induced the king to return Caerleon to them, and in 1184 HYWEL was the only Welshman among six men who held castles in Glamorgan and Monmouthshire in the king’s name when the Welsh attacked Glamorgan (DWB “Morgan ap Hywel”, Bradney, Vol III, p.187). He was complimented by Gerald of Wales for “observing a strict neutrality between the Welsh and the English” (quoted by R.R.Davies, Conquest p.102). Lowland Monmouthshire had been under nominal Norman control for a century, but Davies noted: “It was indicative of continuing native influence in the area that when a Cistercian abbey was founded at Llantarnam near Caerleon in 1179, its mother house should be Strata Florida in the heart of native Wales, and its patron and protector was the local Welsh ruler in Monmouthshire, HYWEL ab IORWERTH ab OWAIN” (p.273).