Credit: Dangerous Minds / Matthew Paris / Public Domain

George RR Martin based his celebrated series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, on the Wars of the Roses that tore England apart from 1455 to 1457. There are other influences on the series, but with Stark vs Lannister and York vs Lancaster, the comparisons make themselves. However, a history buff like Martin probably knows that Gruffudd ap Llywellyn of Wales is also ripe ground for storytelling.

While some American readers might only associate Wales with rugby, a whimsical accent and Tom Jones, its rich history goes back centuries. In that time, there have been enough back stabbings, blood-soaked battles, steamy affairs and conflicts of succession to fill several series of books. Even with all that in mind, the story of Gruffudd ap Llywellyn would make for the most compelling.

Gruffudd lived in the early 1200s, and naturally, there isn’t a whole lot of information regarding the specifics of his life. The year of his birth even remains a mystery, but we do know that he was the son of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, the prince of Gwynedd, the territory we now know as North Wales. What’s more, he was the black sheep in his family. His father handed him over to the English King John as a token of his fealty to the King of England, and Gruffudd spent a large amount of his youth in London.

Upon the death of King John, Gruffudd was released back to his home country, and his experiences had seemingly stoked a desire to prove himself to his family. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite able to do this. He was handed land to rule upon his return, then promptly did such a bad job of it that he was relieved of his duty. He was handed a wing of his father’s army to command in combat and lost his father’s territory. Later, his father even imprisoned him in 1228 for six years.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, on the death of his father, that Gruffudd had been written out of his succession, with all of Llywelyn’s titles going to his half-brother Dafydd.

How did Gruffudd end up back in London?

This was a controversial move at the time, as Dafydd was actually half-English, meaning that the fully Welsh Gruffudd actually had more public support despite his seeming inability to do anything. Over time, Dafydd couldn’t hide his sneaking suspicion that Gruffudd was plotting moves against him and imprisoned him. This royal infighting made Wales a prime target for invasion, one that came at the hands of the new King of England, Henry III.

After a succesful turn at the Welsh borders, Dafydd was obliged to turn all of his most valuable prisoners over to King Henry. When it came to Gruffudd, this was something he was only too happy to do. One can only imagine the horrible déjà vu that Gruffudd suffered when he realised that once more, his kin were sending him off to London. Except last time, he was a hostage. This time, he was a prisoner.

Here is where things get tragic. You see, there was a bail fee for Gruffudd, and his wife, Senana, paid the 600 marks to secure his release. However, Henry didn’t want to give up Gruffudd as he could be valuable in a war against his brother. Perhaps Henry didn’t realise that his prisoner’s life was little more than a series of terrible mistakes, and he was about to make his last one when he realised what was happening.

Gruffudd was imprisoned in one of the highest rooms in the Tower of London. Upon realising that his captor wasn’t going to hold up his end of the bargain, he resorted to desperate measures. He stripped his bed of its sheets, then tied it and all his clothes into a makeshift rope. The idea was to reverse-Rapunzel himself out of his tower, but the rope was probably about as useful as human hair would be in real life. It broke when he was halfway down. He did not survive the fall.

A fate befitting of his life, then. Except that, as with so many of us, his legacy was his saving grace. Gruffudd was a complicated, ineffective man, but his children eclipsed him, with his son Llywelyn ruling as Prince of Wales for 30 years. If there isn’t one hell of a historical fantasy story in there, I didn’t know where it would be.