Kyndeg, who was contemporary with Cadwallader, and lived a.d. 703, succeeded him.
Teithwalch, his son, gained a signal victory over his rival, the Mercian king, at Carno, in Brecknockshire, (opposite to the village of Crickhowell,) and in commemoration of which an immense circle and pile of stones is to be seen to this day.
But the encroachment of the Saxons in his son Tegyd’s time became more formidable than ever, considerably circumscribing his limits, that had originally embraced all the territories lying between the two rivers of Wye and Severn; and
Tangwyd, his son, succeeded to very straitened limits, being reduced to the lordship of Radnor, with parts of Montgomery and Brecon; and
Anarawd, his son, succeeded as regulus of Radnor and Brecon, in the time of Egbert, king of the West Saxons, who united the whole heptarchy into one entire kingdom, henceforward called that of “England.” To Anarawd succeeded his son,
Gwyngwy, who, though greatly reduced in territory, still affected the regal title, calling himself “Brenhin” Ferlex a Brecheiniog. And to Gwyngwy succeeded his son,
Hugan, called by John de Castares, “Prince of West Wales,” but by the Welsh historians, more modestly, the “Prince of Brecknock.” To Hugan succeeded
Druffin, so humbled as to be persuaded or compelled to row King Edgar in his barge on the river Dee, being one of the tributary kings who acted that derogatory part, which served to inflate the pride of that vain-glorious but powerful English monarch. Druffin m. Crusella, dau. of Idwal ap Meyrick, and was succeeded by his son,
Maynarch, who m. Ellen, dau. of Eineon ap Seliff, Lord of the Cantred of Seliff. Maynarch was succeeded by
Blethin, the last prince of his house and family; for William Rufus promising to Bernard Newmarch (England at that time having been effectually conquered and possessed by the Normans) all he could conquer in Wales, that adventurer (at the time gentleman of the bedchamber to this the second of the Norman kings) set out for the principality, and the enfeebled prince collecting, on a sudden, all his diminished forces, a battle ensued in the neighbourhood of Brecknock, in which he was worsted and himself slain. The conqueror and his eleven Norman knights (whom, tempted by the prize, he had invited to partake of his enterprise) entered into possession; and the last act of royalty shewn to this unhappy prince by his subjects and followers was the conveying his corse to the Abbey of Strata Florida, in Cardiganshire, and there interring it amongst the princes of Wales, with all the pomp the circumstances allowed. Thus, after a possession of between five and six hundred years, was this family divested of every mark of regal dignity. Rhys Goch, however, his brother, was permitted to retain a small possession on the confines of the county, entitled the lordship of Ystradew, (afterwards usurped by the Clares, and came into possession of the Herberts, Earls of Pembroke.) Rhys Goch, or Rhys the Red, married Joan, daughter of Cadogan[[78]] ap Elistan Glorith, (whose arms are still quartered by the Byam family,) and by her had Kynwillen, who married Jonnett, dau. and co-heir of Hawell, Prince of Caerleon, (to whom Henry II. allowed that city, and twelve miles around circumadjacent country,) and by her, whose arms are still likewise borne by the Byams, Kynwillen had Kynwell, who married Gladwys, dau. of Sitsilt ap Duvenwall, Lord of Gwent, and seventh Baron of Abergavenny, by right of tenure of the castle thereof, (from the Norman conquest,) and by her had Arthur, who married Ellen, the dau. of Meirick ap Cradog, (ancestor of the Matthews, and of the present Earls of Llandaff,) and had Howell, who married Jone, dau. of Grono ap Llowarth, Lord of Kebor, and had Griffith, who married Jonnett, dau. and sole heir of Grono ap Treherne ap Blaith ap Elvarch, Lord of Penrose, in Monmouthshire, a possession which she conveyed to her husband’s family, in whose family it remained several centuries, and the ruins of the mansion are still extant, and by her (whose arms the Byams still bear) Griffith had David. David marrying Maud, dau. to Llewelyn Vaughan, of Lansamllo, had Howel Gam, who marrying Joan, dau. to Adam ap Rees ap Eineon Sais, had Meiric, and Meiric marrying Gwenllian, dau. to Gwyllim ap Jenkin, had Ievan ap Meirick, of Penrose, Esq., (from whom, in the time of his son and grandson, and by the blending of ap that followed their name with his of Ievan, or Evan, came the name of Abyam, and at length Byam;) for this Ievan, or Evan, had a son, Jenkin, or John, that was the first to whom the surname was assigned, and was of Maerdy, in Monmouthshire, and he a son, Thomas, of same place, and who marrying Johanna, dau. of Llewelyn ap Gwyllim, had a son, Edward, who was both of Maerdy, in Monmouthshire, aforesaid, and of Bath, in Somersetshire, in Subsidy Rolls of which city he is included, 45 of Henry VIII., 1545, under the name of Edward Abyam, (the ultimate name as now used being scarcely, as yet, determined,) and this Edward Abyam dying in Jan. 1594, was buried at the Abbey Church, 2 Feb. following, leaving by Welthian, his wife, the dau. of Robert Gamage, (of the Glamorganshire family of that name,) Thomas Byam, his son and heir, of Bath, and Lawrence Byam, ancestor of the family now in question.