According to Darrell Wolcott. . . .
Madog (ob 1140) inherited all three of commotes of Ceri, Maelienydd and Elfael. However, claims to this territory were being pressed by the Normans. In the 1080's, Cadwgan had lost Hereford to the Normans and now Idnerth's purely Welsh portion (west of Offa's Dyke) of the old kingdom of Fferlys was invaded by Ralph Mortimer. Based at Wigmore in Herefordshire, this Mortimer brought his army into Maelienydd about 1093 and built a castle at Cymaran (Cwm Aeron). But in 1100, Mortimer was banished to France by Henry I and Idnerth was able to reclaim his lost territory and pass it on intact to his son, Madog.
About the year 1130, another Norman intrusion came in Elfael. Henry I had installed Miles of Gloucester as Earl of Hereford, who appointed his retainer, Payne fitz John, as Sheriff for Herefordshire and Shropshire. The latter man invaded Elfael and built a motte and bailey hill-fort forever after known as "Painscastle". (It was not fortified with stone until 100 years later, in 1231 by Henry III). But it is believed that by 1135, Painscastle was under the control of Madog ap Idnerth. There is no record of a battle in Elfael and perhaps Madog and Payne had become "allies of necessity"; when Henry I died that year and Stephen became King of England, Hugh Mortimer (son of Ralph) returned to England and was restored to his castle at Wigmore. The Mortimer family was an old enemy of Madog's family and its expansionist ambitions may have led Payne fitz John to ally with Madog against Mortimer. Payne and Earl Miles had been very early adherents to King Stephen whose legitimacy to the crown was being challenged by Matilda, the daughter of Henry I to whom he had promised his kingdom[7]. The peaceful state of affairs in Elfael was to be altered drastically in the ensuing years: Payne died in 1137, Madog in 1140 and Hugh Mortimer soon after, all men past age 50.
Hugh Mortimer II inherited Wigmore and in 1142, he invaded Maelienydd to regain Cymaran and killed Hywel and Cadwgan ap Madog. He later moved into Elfael to take Painscastle, killing Maredudd ap Madog in 1146. Of Madog's remaining sons, Einion Clud became Lord of Elfael and Cadwallon Lord of Ceri and Maelienydd. For the next 30 years, Mortimer held the major castles in those commotes but the sons of Madog continued to hold the remainder of their lands with the support of King Stephen and his successor, Henry II...likely as a means of checking the Mortimer power within their own kingdom. But when Hugh Mortimer II died in the 1170's, his son Roger renewed the hostilities; his men ambushed and killed Einion Clud in 1177. When this did not result in any reprisals from Henry II, he was emboldened to kill Cadwallon ap Madog in 1179 as the latter was returning from a meeting with King Henry. This treachery was not ignored by the king; he had Mortimer's men arrested and their lands seized. Roger Mortimer himself was thrown into prison. But the Welsh family, the proud descendants of Elystan Glodrydd, was never again to rule their patrimony independently from the Normans. Thereafter, we find the family limited to smaller lordships, principally in Ceri. |
