Excerpt

The period considered here begins with the death in 1063 or 1064 of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, a prince of Gwynedd (northwest Wales), who had unified much of the country, but was killed by his own troops during a campaign against Earl Harold (later Harold II of England). This was, of course, almost immediately followed by the Norman Conquest of England, which reached into Gwent and Morgannwg (southeast Wales) by 1072. As Roger Turvey points out, though, "unlike William's invasion of England in 1066, the 'invasion' of Wales was neither planned nor coordinated either by a king preoccupied in consolidating his victory over the Saxon-English or by Norman adventurers selfishly engaged in carving out for themselves pockets of Welsh territory" (p. 42).