This is the story of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, the penniless exile who became Wales’s greatest prince. He presided over a turbulent and politically charged period of Welsh history, having to prove himself first on the battlefield before learning the statesman’s craft so as to establish his control over the warring factions of his own country.

Rhys ap Gruffydd stands out from his fellow Welsh rulers, not simply on account of his singular appellation as The Lord Rhys, but because of some indefinable quality which marked him as a prince of unusual talent, vision and insight.

This is the first study for over a century of the live and reign of one of the greatest medieval Welsh rulers, Owain Gwynedd (1137-70).