In 1103 Meredydd found means of escaping, and returned to Wales. Then ensued the troubles with Owen, son of Cadwgan, who carried off Nest, wife of Gerald of Windsor, as has been related elsewhere.
The wily Bishop of Hereford entered into negotiations with Ithel and Madog, sons of the deceased Rhirid, and nephews of Cadwgan and Iorwerth, to stir up civil war in Powys and Ceredigion.
Iorwerth had by this time also left his prison, and had returned to Powys, and from Mathrafal issued a proclamation against these turbulent princes. But Madog, hearing that his uncle Iorwerth was at Caereinion, near Welshpool, with few attendants, stealthily surrounded the building and set fire to it. Iorwerth attempted to escape from the flames, but was thrust back into them by the spears of his nephew’s followers, and perished.
Not long after, Cadwgan was looking at the works in progress at Castell Coch, when Madog, with his attendants, crept through the woods, fell on him, and murdered him also.
POWIS CASTLE
In reward for having done to death his two uncles Henry I. received him favourably, and invested him with lands and paid him a large sum of money. But Meredydd, another uncle, remained, and in 1111 he entered the lands of his nephew Madog, discovered his whereabouts by torturing one of his servants, captured him, and handed him over to Owen, son of Cadwgan, who put out his eyes.
Owen would have killed him but that he and Madog had previously sworn friendship and fidelity to each other.
A rather curious ghost story attaches to Powis Castle. It occurs in the autobiography of the grandfather of the late Mr. Thomas Wright, a well-known antiquary. It was told to Mr. Wright in 1780 by Mr. John Hampson, a Methodist preacher.