Owain ap Dyfnwal (died 1015)

Owain ap Dyfnwal
King of Strathclyde
Owain's name as it appears on folio 60r of Oxford Jesus College MS 111 (the Red Book of Hergest): "owein".
Predecessor	Máel Coluim
Successor	Owain Foel
Died	1015
Father	Dyfnwal ab Owain

Owain ap Dyfnwal (died 1015) may have been an eleventh-century ruler of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. He seems to have been a son of Dyfnwal ab Owain, King of Strathclyde, and may well have succeeded Dyfnwal's son, Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde. During Owain's reign, he would have faced a massive invasion by Æthelræd II, King of the English. Owain's death is recorded in 1015, and seems to have been succeeded by Owain Foel, a man who may have been his nephew.

Owain seems to have been a son of Dyfnwal ab Owain, King of Strathclyde (died 975). For much of the tenth century—possibly from the 930s to the 970s—the latter ruled the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The chronology of Dyfnwal's apparent abdication is uncertain. He seems to have vacated the throne by the 970s. His apparent son, Rhydderch (fl. 971), may have briefly reigned as king, although no source states as much. Certainly, English sources reveal that Dyfnwal's son, Máel Coluim (died 977), ruled in 973 whilst Dyfnwal was still alive. Owain may well have taken up the throne after Máel Coluim's death in 997.

Surviving sources fail to note the Cumbrian kingdom between the obituaries of Dyfnwal in 975 and his son, Máel Coluim, in 997. Little is certain of Owain's apparent reign. Near the turn of the new millennium, Owain may well have been in his fifties or sixties, and seems to have faced an English invasion of his realm. Specifically, the ninth–twelfth-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that Æthelræd II, King of the English (died 1016) unleashed a devastating campaign against the Cumbrian kingdom in 1000. Although the English are said to have ravaged nearly all of the country, the English naval forces based at Chester failed to link up with the land forces—seemingly due to adverse weather conditions—and are recorded to have attacked the Isle of Man instead. This improvised island assault could indicate that the English fleet had originally intended to penetrate the Firth of Clyde region rather than the Solway Firth.