House of Mathrafal

The House of Mathrafal was the royal line of Powys, the central of the three great Welsh kingdoms of the early medieval period (alongside Gwynedd to the north under the House of Aberffraw, and Deheubarth to the south under the House of Dinefwr). The dynasty took its name from the royal seat of Mathrafal in the Vyrnwy valley, a site occupied as a princely court from the 9th century. The senior line is traditionally derived from Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, king of much of Wales after the death of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1063.

The peak figure of the line was Madog ap Maredudd (d.1160), the last king of an undivided Powys, who ruled the kingdom as one of the most respected Welsh princes of his age, in close diplomatic communication with both English and Welsh courts. After Madog's death Powys was divided between his sons into Powys Fadog (the northern half, around Wrexham and the upper Dee) and Powys Wenwynwyn (the southern half, around Welshpool and Montgomery); both branches continued as semi-independent princes for the next century and a half.

The senior Mathrafal claim ultimately passed to Owain Glyndŵr through his descent from Madog ap Maredudd in the male line, which is what gave Glyndŵr's 1400 revolt its dynastic legitimacy across mid-Wales. After the conquest, the Powys Wenwynwyn line passed through marriage to the Charlton (Cherleton) Lords Powis, and Mathrafal blood continues through several modern Welsh aristocratic and gentry lines.