Gwladus Ddu

Gwladus Ddu, ("Gwladus the Dark"), full name Gwladus ferch Llywelyn (died 1251) was a Welsh noblewoman who was a daughter of Llywelyn the Great of Gwynedd and married two Marcher lords.

Sources differ as to whether Gwladus was Llywelyn's legitimate daughter by his wife Joan or an illegitimate daughter by Tangwystl Goch. Some sources say that Joan gave her lands to Gwladus, which suggests, but does not prove, the former. Gwladus is recorded in Brut y Tywysogion as having died at Windsor in 1251.

Marriage

• She married firstly, Reginald de Braose, Lord of Brecon and Abergavenny in about 1215, but they are not known to have had a daughter Matilda de Braose. After Reginald's death in 1228 she was probably the sister recorded as accompanying Dafydd ap Llywelyn to London in 1229.
• She married secondly, Ralph de Mortimer of Wigmore about 1230. Ralph died in 1246, and their son, Roger de Mortimer, inherited the lordship.

Issue

• Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer, in 1247, married Maud de Braose, by whom he had seven children.
• Hugh de Mortimer
• John de Mortimer
• Peter de Mortimer

References

• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis; Lines 132-C-29, 176B-28
• John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.)