Bleddyn ap Cynfyn

Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (Old Welsh: Bledẏnt uab Kẏnỽẏn;d. AD 1073), sometimes spelled Blethyn, was an 11th-century Welsh king. He was installed by Harold and Tostig Godwinson as king of Gwynedd in 1063 on his father's death, during their destruction of the kingdom of Bleddyn's half-brother, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. He became king of Powys on his brother Rhiwallon's death in 1069. His descendants continued to rule Powys as the House of Mathrafal.

Bleddyn was born to an Powys nobleman named Cynfyn His mother, Llywelyn ap Seisyll's widow Angharad, was the daughter of King Maredudd of Dyfed, whose realm had been lost to the Irish pretender Rhain before its conquest by Llywelyn.

Gruffydd, Angharad's son by her first husband and Bleddyn's half-brother, was initially dispossessed upon his father's early death. Slowly, however, he rebuilt his father's realm, annexing its successor states. Although bards and annalists had called many leaders "King of the Britons", Gruffydd was the first to rule all the free Welsh after he conquered Morgannwg in response to its invasion of Dyfed.

As this was going on, Bleddyn seems to have been resident in Powys, where he married Haer ferch Cillyn, daughter of the Lord of Gest Cillyn y Blaidd Rudd ("Cillyn the Red Wolf").

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