Research Notes:

From the Iolo manuscripts:

"Some intricacies occur in Caradoc's account of Iestyn and his family, that are not only irreconciliable with probability, but even with possibility, unless explained by circumstances upon which he is silent. That prince is said, in A.D. 994, to have married Denis, the daughter of Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, prince of Powys. Now Bleddyn did not assume the government of that Principality, until 1062; and, as he fell in 1072, without any extraordinary age being attributed to him, we can scarcely suppose him to have been even born at the asserted period of his daughter's marriage; and, hence, the observation—that Denis was his daughter, by his first wife, .... does not obviate the difficulty. In 1031, Rhydderch, the eldest son of Iestyn, fell in battle; and in the same year, Caradoc, another son, fell; but I have never seen this Caradoc included among the different names transmitted of Denis's children; hence the inference that he was a natural son is admissible. It is stated in the same year, that Iestyn, after the death of Denis, the daughter of Bleddyn ab Cynfyn, his first wife, (Myv. Arch. II. p. 307) made proposals for a second marriage, which, however, were rejected on account of his advanced age. Still we have another Caradoc, the son of Iestyn, appointed, in 1090, under Fitzhamon's allotments, as regulus of the territory of the territory between the rivers Neath and Avan. In the previous year, Iestyn stipulates with Einion ab Collwyn, as one of that chieftan's conditions for his aid against Rhys, to give him his daughter in marriage. This stipulation, however, violated by Iestyn, was afterwards enforced by Fitzhamon; and several children issued from the union; which could not possibly have occurred, had that princess been the daughter of Denis, recorded to have been dead sixty years previously. Supposing, however, that Denis was Bleddyn ab Cynfyn's eldest sister, (a consideration also that involves some difficulty) instead of his daughter, the perplexity with regard to that prince vanishes; and Iestyn's second marriage with Angharad, the daughter of Elystan Glodrydd, as stated by most Welsh historians of note, except Caradoc, fully explains the other circumstances." ¹